PROCESS
A three-month research phase, from January–March, included:
- Definition of redesign goals
- User research
- Identification of best practices
- Identification of ongoing resources
METHODOLOGY
Research included meetings with senior administrators; focus groups comprised of students, faculty and staff; surveys of users and colleagues at peer institutions; review of existing literature; analysis of usage logs and search queries; and user testing involving current students, prospective students, faculty, staff and alumni. Details on our process are found in Appendix a.
RESEARCH RESULTS
- Audience. We identified two primary audience groups: internal and external. Internal users are interested in accessing information and services to support their daily activities. External visitors are seeking news, information about admissions, and information about the College.
- Design. Most users responded favorably to the prominent image on the current home page and felt Dartmouth green should figure prominently. Some users suggested more frequent image updates and prominent news, events, and highlights.
- Navigation. Many users complain of difficulty in locating information and services. The current navigation design, with categories, supporting keywords, and audience-based navigation, was generally found to be inadequate, as was the search engine.
- Content. There is no consolidated source of access to many Dartmouth resources. Users complained of difficulty locating a single source of information on events, dates, photos, departments, and so on.
REDESIGN GOALS
Based on our January 23 meeting with the Strategic Communications Committee, and supported by our research, the following goals were determined:
Improve Usability
Research shows that improved usability leads to increased user satisfaction.
- Be responsive to users. Follow the principles of user-centered design, basing design decisions on user research and feedback.
- Improve navigation. Develop effective topic-based navigation, with clear labels and visual reinforcement to facilitate identification.
- Improve the search experience. Explore ways to improve or replace the current search engine.
- Improve the events calendar. Explore ways to improve the calendar interface. Broaden use of the calendar by event presenters.
- Consolidate content. Develop overviews to orient users and provide access to departments, schools, programs of study, etc.
- Provide a consistent, coherent, and robust user experience. Explore quality assurance tools such as link, accessibility, and syntax checking software. Develop a style guide for Web content. Consider mandating standards for design, and strive to integrate more departments and programs into the Dartmouth template.
- Develop and consolidate offerings for prospective students. With Admissions, develop the Prospective Students area of the site to better serve the distinct needs of prospective students.
- Integrate more content for alumni. With Alumni Relations, identify ways to effectively integrate selected information and services of interest to alumni into the Dartmouth site.
Support Key Messages
As a critical communications medium, the Web must be a vehicle for articulating the key messages established in Fall 2005:
- Reveal more of the “Dartmouth Experience” online. Show Dartmouth through the use of rich media. Develop and consolidate content around “Dartmouth in the World” and other topics. Give news and events more prominence on the home page.
- Highlight distinctive characteristics. Spotlight content that articulates the key messages. Provide tools and opportunities for members of the Dartmouth community to contribute to Dartmouth online.
- Be more welcoming. Provide narrative at the home and top-level pages. Provide easy access to overviews, contact information and an faq. Offer translations of the home and top-level pages. Offer a specific section for prospective students.
Enhance Offerings
Current Web technologies offer opportunities to enhance our communications efforts.
- Accessibility. Continue to build accessibility into home and top-level pages. Promote best practices for the development of accessible content through tools. Consider mandating standards for accessibility and design.
- Interactivity. Seek opportunities for user interaction. Allow users to contribute content to our site, including photos and video. Provide options for customization, such as custom home page “quick links.” Support connections between external and internal groups.
- Mobility. Create templates for delivering selected content to mobile devices. Provide mobile-specific content; allow users to subscribe to content.
- Social. Explore options for incorporating social functionality into our Web offerings. Capitalize on external Web-based Dartmouth content.
ONGOING RESOURCES
This report does not assume additional resources but rather attempts to work within the constraints of the current support environment. However, the success of Dartmouth’s Web site requires the College to allocate ongoing resources—in the form of ftes and program budget—for the research, planning, and maintenance of the site. We look forward to discussing this issue further with the senior leadership.
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