Transcript Web Redesign Project Report September 2010

Web Redesign Project Update
September 15, 2010
Agenda
• Recall: Project Scope and requirements
• Information Architecture
• Usability Testing
• Visual Design
• Next Steps
Project Scope
• uWaterloo home
• Pathway pages: future student, current
student, faculty, staff, alumni, employers
• Panels: About Waterloo, Today @
Waterloo (including Bulletin), Faculties &
Academics, Offices & Services
• Other: Feature Stories, Communications |
News, Support Waterloo
09/06/10
Project Requirements
• Technical:
• HTML: W3C XHTML 1.0 Recommendation; Strict
DOCTYPE, No JavaScript or CSS will be present in
any mark-up file
• CSS: W3C Cascading Style Sheets Level 2 Revision
1 (CSS 2.1), NO CSS hacks
Project Requirements
• Technical (continued):
• Browser Support: Internet Explorer 7, FireFox 2.0,
Safari 3.0, Opera 9, Chrome 2 and up
• Site Formats: Full, Print, mobile/naked
• Drupal: Any XHTML/CSS templates developed must
conform to Drupal practices and restrictions.
Project Requirements
Technical (continued):
• Javascript:
• Framework: jQuery must be used for any and all
JavaScript in the templates
• Progressive Enhancement: fully usable without
JavaScript; functionality must be developed with no
JavaScript and then enhanced by adding JavaScript
Project Requirements
• Accessibility
• New site will be Web Content Accessibility Guidelines
(WCAG) 2.0 - Level AA compliant
• Level AA compliance = accessible to most users in
most circumstances
Information Architecture
• Prepared pathway pages (based on phase 1, needs
assessments):
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Future Students
Current Students
Faculty
Staff
Employer
Alumni
• Finalized navigation:
• Support Waterloo
• Co-op / Career Services
Usability Testing
• Phase 2: Completed second round of
testing (paper prototyping)
• Phase 3: online testing of low-fidelity
prototypes/wireframes completed (midAugust)
09/06/10
Usability Testing
• 2nd phase results:
• participants shown paper mock-ups of proposed
homepage and asked to complete tasks
Usability Testing
2nd phase (round 2)
• Investigated particularly problematic areas identified in
the first round of paper prototyping:
1. Feature Stories: Feature story tabs continued to be
problematic (may be due to inability to interact with
site);further investigation needed
2. Support Waterloo: Removed support waterloo
from header and moved to footer; was viewed much
more positively
Usability Testing
• 3rd phase: Online wireframe testing
• Over 700 respondents!!!
• Collected demographic information and
matched to responses
• Due to the overwhelming response, data has
not yet been fully analyzed
• Analysis focus to begin next week, results
shared as soon as available
Visual Design: Project Goals
Recall original project goals:
• accurately reflect the new branding attributes,
• create a new look and feel,
• enhance user experience by improving
navigation, search and information organization,
• adopt new web standards on accessibility,
flexibility in design, and adaptability to the
differing needs on campus
Visual Design: Templates
Based on content type, we asked for following:
• Faculty/Department/Service homepage
• Text heavy page with subsection
• Text light page
• Photo gallery
• Contact page with embedded email form and
contact list
• Pathway type
Visual Design
• Design proposals were made available to
community at the end of August and beginning
of September
• Most feedback = positive
• Key areas of concern expressed by community:
3D, “W” bar, photo selections
• Team is committed to meeting specifications
originally outlined
Next Steps
• Consultation on IA and designs = complete
• Web Style Guide expected from consultant
October 8th – will become a living document that
will incorporate visual, communications and
technical aspects
• Source code will be delivered by White Whale
at the end of October and will be delivered to
CMS project once any additional tweaks have
been completed
Next Steps
• Bootcamp: Working with people from across
campus to prepare overview presentations
aimed at giving pilot site contributors a solid
foundational overview of:
• Branding
• Writing for the Web
• Accessibility
• Usability
• Content analysis
• Information architecture
Thank you!
Questions?
Comments?