Web Team Planning for Next Redesign of UWF Web Presence
Recommendations include Content Management System
The UWF Web Team, led by Jay Massey, assistant director for Web Services, is in the research and planning stages for the next redesign of the university web presence. During the last decade, UWF has made significant progress toward creating a common look and feel across university-sponsored web pages.
This goal has been achieved via a set of standard web templates and documentation to assist the university's web developers. While UWF has made giant leaps forward in improving its online presence, there is still much work to be done to create a first-class website that is scalable and easy-to-use for visitors. To that end, the Web Team is preparing for the third redesign of UWF's web presence, which will represent a major shift not only in the front-end design and navigation of university websites, but also in the back-end management of web pages through a Content Management System.
A Content Management System (CMS) is a software system that provides website authoring, collaboration, and administration tools designed to allow users with little knowledge of web programming languages or markup languages to create and manage website content with relative ease. UWF's proposed adoption of a CMS system will make it easier for non-technical staff to manage web content and provide workflow processes for content to be reviewed and approved at various levels in a timely manner.
The Web Team is currently evaluating CMS tools as well as user feedback collected through a recent online survey with more than 700 respondents from all audience types. This survey data, combined with other research on best practices and peer/aspirant institution experiences, will be used to drive the recommendations the Web Team will make to the UWF Web Advisory Committee as it guides the future direction of uwf.edu.
The tentative timeline for the next redesign of UWF's web presence includes a new "interim" homepage design to be launched in fall 2011 that will serve to refresh the look of the current UWF homepage, in preparation for a full redesign and the larger migration of the entire UWF web presence to a Content Management System in 2012. The campus community will be included in all phases of the redesign process. More information on the timeline and plan will be announced soon.
If you have questions, please contact Jay Massey, assistant director of Web Services, at (850) 474-2427 or e-mail jmassey@uwf.edu.