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Dartmouth's home page—its door to the world on the Web—will have a new look
and feel beginning August 30.
The major revision to the site, including improved architecture, a number of
functional enhancements, and a graphic makeover, is the result of nearly eight
months' work by the three-member "Home Team":
Sarah Horton from curricular computing, and Rick Adams and Martin Grant of
public affairs.
The Home Team did extensive research before moving into the design phase
last spring. The project has included user testing, focus groups, and two Web
"town meetings," the most recent on August 4, to gauge the Dartmouth
community's response to the architecture and design of the new site.
"The input from users of the site has been tremendously useful,"
says Horton. "We can respond to feedback and be more on target with our
design."
Features of the new site include a primary photographic image that will
change each time the home page is reloaded and navigational "quick
links" that will enable the user to jump directly to popular pages within
the Dartmouth site. One new twist to the quick links: the list will be
customizable, so that frequent users of the site can set their own list of
links and will be able to choose between a static display of links or view them
within a pull-down menu.
"We hope that this new site will serve as more of a destination for
information, resources, news and events," says Grant "There's so much
new content that we've developed, and so many great new features that we know
people will find useful."
Content has been recategorized, with navigation by both topical area and by
user audience. Users will be able to browse the site by topics that include
academics, research, campus life, and general information about the College.
Users can also find resources targeted at prospective students, current
students, faculty and staff, and alumni.
The types of information and content will also change in the new home page.
In response to user feedback, more space will be devoted to news, information,
and events, including a regularly changing main feature that will highlight
some aspect of life at the College.
"There is a staggering amount of content-text, video, audio, and
images-around the site that can show the breadth and depth of the
College," says Adams, who will coordinate the day-to-day lineup of
information on the home page. "We'll use that to highlight all areas of
the College, in and out of the classroom, and at the professional
schools."
The Home Team has documented the redesign of the home page on its Web site,
www.dartmouth.edu/~hometeam/.
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