Website Redesign: Survey Results

survey

About the Survey

We are in the process of redesigning the college website. This survey was used to gather feedback about the content and features our students use as well as their opinions about some changes to the website that we are considering.

Over 600 Responses in 19 days!

On April 28, the website redesign survey was posted online. As of May 17, we have received 628 responses! We have reviewed over 600 completed surveys and THOUSANDS of comments. We appreciate all of the helpful feedback.


Here is a quick snapshot of the results:

  • The look needs to change
    The colors are dull. The design is boring and outdated. The layout is cluttered. Photos should be updated frequently and include more shots of the campus.
    “It’s under the impression a beige-brown is an appealing color; it’s not.”
  • Website should be more unified/cohesive
    The main website, library, Blackboard, myStudentCenter, portal, calendars and email are all maintained by different departments, and it shows.
    “Layout is disjointed and look and feel is not consistent.”

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2010
05/17
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CATEGORY
Redesign
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Web Advisory Meeting: Personas Part II

slide

Slide: Weighted Feature Matrix

About the Meeting

The third web advisory committee meeting took place on Tuesday, April 20. Before the meeting, we asked the group to complete the student personas by submitting virtual sticky notes. This meeting was focused on the other personas:  Business, General Community, Friends of CLC and Education Community.

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2010
04/23
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CATEGORY
Redesign
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‘Integrating New Technologies’ Conference Notes

About the Conference

The College of Lake County hosted a conference, “Integrating New Technologies in the Classroom: A Conference for Faculty.” Dr. Rich Haney, Vice President Educational Affairs, introduced the keynote speaker as an “awesome guy.” Sure enough, he was awesome. Why was he awesome?

1) He incorporated clips from “The Office” and “The Hangover”
2) His pacing was excellent.. He used an iPad as a timer, went off every 15 minutes
3) He kept it casual, open discussions and Q&A throughout the presentation
4) He shared actual examples of how educators integrate technologies in their classroom…

Affinity spaces: Where informal learning takes place

Jeff Kissinger, Chief Learning Solutions Architect
“In the age of beta: change is the constant.”

Here is how educators use…

Twitter

  • Share interesting articles
  • Post questions of the day
  • Communicate with current and prospective students
  • Set up the feed to update Blackboard (for class discussion)…
  • …And to update the blog (for future students).

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2010
04/19
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CATEGORY
Learning
Tools
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Redesign: Second Meeting, ‘Personas Part I’

About the Meeting

The second web advisory committee meeting took place on Thursday, April 8. In preparation for the personas exercise, the  committee was asked to  fill out this survey. In addition, all staff and faculty had an opportunity to participate.

Agenda

I. Survey Results: 94 responses to how CLC is perceived and what sets CLC apart.
II. Group Exercise: Who are our target audiences?
III. Group Exercise: What do our target audiences want from us?
(Matching types of persons with their goals, actions, problems)
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2010
04/06
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Redesign
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Redesign: Kick-off Meeting

First Meeting

The two-hour meeting with the Web Advisory Committee and the the Web Redesign Team took place on Tue., March 23, 2010.

The Presentation

View the presentation online or download the PDF.

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2010
03/22
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CATEGORY
Redesign
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Tools: Google Sites for Staff and Faculty

Google Sites Sample Page

The Email that Started It

A faculty member asked, “Can we have a password-protected page to post instructor resources (i.e. sample syllabus)?”

First thoughts..
T drive? Not for adjunct faculty. Web space? Too complicated. Blog? No password protection. That’s where Google Sites comes in…

Why I Suggested Google Sites

  • Create a Web site that is public or private (with control over collaborators and viewers)
  • Use a template (lots to choose from), easy to setup, no design or HTML required
  • Create, edit and maintain online, No software required
  • Upload documents, create links, there are different types of page layouts

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2010
03/20
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Tools
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Redesign: College Web Site Staffing Survey

UPDATE (June 16, 2010) – 30 colleges completed the survey, view the survey results (PDF)

As part of a Web site redesign process, the College of Lake County would like to collect benchmark information about other colleges’ Web teams. Specifically, we’re interested in identifying the number and kinds of staff (as well as outside freelancers) devoted to creating and maintaining high-quality Web sites. This will help us assess the level of staffing we will need as we continue to develop and enhance our own web site.

We would like to include your institution in our benchmarking. Participating is easy—just click on the link below, which will be available until March 31.

College / University Web Site Staffing Survey

At the end of the survey, there is an option to request a copy of the results. The findings will be presented only in the aggregate. Names of colleges and other identifying information will not be reported.

2010
03/10
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Redesign
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Redesign: Process Proposed; Committee, Team Formed

It’s official!

The proposed redesign process has gone through the governance system, and a Web Advisory Committee and a Web Redesign Team have been formed.

The Governance System

The Web Advisory Committee serves as a subcommittee of the ITC, thereby creating a link to the governance system. It also has an unofficial, “dotted line” relationship with the Enrollment Management Commission because of the importance of the web as a tool for building enrollment.

The Web Advisory Committee

This committee provides a means of obtaining institutional buy in for the re-design process, decisions and end products. It includes membership from across the institution and includes representatives from the major stakeholder departments. The membership includes:

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2010
03/09
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CATEGORY
Redesign
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Learning: UIE Virtual Seminar ‘The Power of Ad Hoc Personas’

The web team and two graphic designers attended a UIE Virtual Seminar, “The Power of Ad Hoc Personas: Truly Practical Methods to Get Your Organization on the Same Page” by Tamara Adlin. In a nutshell, we learned the importance of creating personas in order to organize and design a Web site that is user friendly. Although the seminar was targeted towards a corporate audience, the messages still apply to higher education.

Twitter Snapshot

Twitter provided an excellent recap of the UIE Virtual Seminar. All of these tweets came from #uievs, mostly from @whitneyhess and @tigerfork.

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2010
02/23
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CATEGORY
Learning
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Redesign: Sites We Like

As part of our first steps for the redesign process, we checked out what other colleges were doing with their Web sites. This step was a lot easier with the help of eduStyle’s homepage collection and  EDU Checkup’s “A” sites.

Things we looked for:

  • Visual Appeal
    Clutter-free, clean design with good use of white space and line height; Creative use of photography, graphics, icons, typography and colors
  • Functional User Interface
    Easy to scan links, headings and overall pages; Clear navigation and menus; Consistent templates and effective landing pages
  • Organized, Helpful Content
    Simple and concise navigation labels and terminology, avoid institutional lingo and acronyms; Well placed and structured pages; Organized from visitor’s POV, not organizational divisions
  • Trends
    Click-thru features; Elaborate footers; Social media integration; Mobile sites/apps

Washtenaw Community College

WCC Home PageWCC Academics PageWCC Future Students Page

Features

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2010
02/17
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CATEGORY
Redesign
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