There are many reasons to redesign the University of Waterloo website, but it is important to first understand a little of the history of the uwaterloo.ca site to understand how we got to where we are at present. In 2001, the "Gold Standard" templates were rolled out across campus to bring consistency and usability to our sites. In 2005, uwaterloo.ca transitioned to the  “Common Look and Feel” templates.  In general, the campus adoption rates of these standardized templates has been quite good and it is what forms the foundation for the website we see today.  However, as web technologies and the needs of our stakeholders and users have evolved, it is clear that the current site is not flexible enough to meet those needs.

Why redesign the site?

In general, there are FOUR key reasons for the redesign:

1. to enhance the user experience by improving site navigation, search functionality, and the overall information architecture
2. to reflect the new branding attributes and to build an infrastructure to support 6th decade goals
3. to adapt to changing web standards and to be compliant with accessibility legislation
4. to provide a more flexible template framework for a variety of needs while ensuring visual consistency with opportunities for variation across sites

Who will be working on this project?

As was noted in an earlier post, the University of Waterloo has retained the services of White Whale to help us accomplish these goals. In addition to the web team from White Whale, the University of Waterloo has set up two groups to work on this project: the Web Redesign Core Working Group and the Web Redesign Task Force.

The role of the Web Redesign Core Working Group is to oversee the project on the Waterloo side including communications, on-campus resourcing, and the execution and assisting with the migration of content. The core group is comprised of the following Waterloo staff:

1. Communications Specialist: Marta Bailey (Graduate Studies Office)
2. Information Architecture/Usability Advisor: Annie Belanger (Library)
3. Project Manager: Sarah Forgrave (Communications and Public Affairs)
4. Accessibility Expert/CMS Project Lead: Eva Grabinski (IST)
5. Web Technology Lead/Web Developer: Adam Hewgill (Housing and Residences) replaces Jaymis Goertz (Marketing and Undergraduate Recruitment) for three months.
6. Web Design Advisor: Amilyn Kebezes (Marketing and Undergraduate Recruitment)
7. Faculty Lead Web Developer: Jonathan Woodcock (Faculty of Engineering)

The Web Redesign Task Force is intended to enhance communication among stakeholders across campus. The team's key activity will be to review deliverables at certain key milestones or tasks, and it is meant to be representative of university stakeholders (graduate and undergraduate students, Faculty, Staff, and Senior Administration). The task force is comprised of the core project team plus the following individuals:

• Task Force Chair: Allan Bell (Library)
• Kelley Teahen (CPA)
• Evan Truong (ENV)
• Ryan Jacobs (Office of Development)
• Ivan Karpenko (Student, Web Design Club)
• Sospeter Gatobu (Graduate Student)
• Dr. Josh Neufeld (Science)
• Dr. Ron McCarville (AHS)
• Sean Van Koughnett (Graphics)
• Meg Beckel (VP, External)
• Michelle Douglas Mills (AHS)
• J.P. Pretti (MATH)
• Dr. Aimee Morrison (ARTS)
• Julie Kalbfleisch (MUR)
• 2 Additional members - student representation (to be announced soon)

When?

In order to prepare our site for launch, there are numerous activities that need to take place. Here is a high-level breakdown of the schedule.

• February: Research and Discovery/Project Planning
• March-May: Information Architecture/Design
• May – July: Content Migration
• July - August: User Testing
• September: Site Launch
  • External pages (top level and some early adopters)
  • NOT internal/log-in applications (e.g., UW-ACE, Quest)
• September 2010 - Future: Further site migration (outside the scope of this project)

We will be sharing our progress here on the web.uwaterloo.ca blog, and we hope that you will continue to respond, comment and ask questions!