Progress on Website Redevelopment Makes a Big Leap Forward
Posted on Oct. 9, 2009
Building on months of behind-the-scenes work, the redevelopment of the Northwestern Health Sciences University website is picking up steam. The University announced in April 2009 that it would be re-engineering its site to be a more effective student recruitment tool, and a more accurate reflection of the University’s mission and vision.
Since then, a project team led by Charles Sawyer, DC, senior vice president, and Monika Brady, BA, web coordinator, and John Healy, BS, director of communications, has been working on creating a budget and timeline for the project, and selecting a website redevelopment agency. The design firm of NewCity was hired in September 2009 to help lead the process.
NewCity was selected after extensive research, according to Dr. Sawyer, and consideration of two other firms. “NewCity’s presentation seemed to resonate with our group,” said Dr. Sawyer. “We liked their approach, and feel we will get the needed personal attention to our project.”
A team from the design firm NewCity was on campus this week. They worked with students, alumni and representatives from several University departments throughout the week, conducting a series of sessions that will help them define and design a new and unique web experience for Northwestern.
The information gathered this week will be combined with feedback from focus groups held over the summer. Healy, along with Susan Ricketts, BA, marketing project coordinator, led a series of focused discussions with students, staff and faculty to assess their perceptions of the University’s brand and message. NewCity helped coordinate additional targeted interviews with prospective and current students, and alumni yielding further feedback on the effectiveness and usability of the website.
Information gathered from those interviews and various sessions held during this planning week will help make informed decisions about language, structure and priorities for the new website.
“What we have accomplished up to this point gives a very broad and solid foundation for the work that will follow,” noted Dr. Sawyer.
Next steps are to complete the research and discovery phase. Using that information, the team from NewCity will develop an overall vision and strategy for the new website. The work will continue on development of the site map and wireframes, and the essential content and messages to be included on the home page and major secondary pages.
Next the team will create a prototype of the website. At that point the second round of usability testing will take place to validate the overall site architecture, navigation and screen layout.
The following step will focus on interface design. The primary objective during this phase is to develop an expression of the brand, which tells the story of who Northwestern is as an institution.
At the same time, Northwestern's communications office and information and technology department, and NewCity will work on selection and implementation of a content management system for the new website. Content inventory will also begin shortly, to evaluate the current content and indentify content gaps.
The entire project will take several months, and the goal is to launch the website next spring. Stay tuned to Northwestern Today for regular updates on the progress of the project.