Web Site Redesign Project

Background

In April 2003, CSU Channel Islands unveiled a web site design to improve the look and feel of its web presence and to improve the ability of users to find content on the CSUCI web site.

In October 2004, the University Web Steering Committee was formed and charged with advising Web Services with respect to the overall look and feel of the University web site. The Committee's membership represents a wide range of University affiliations, including students, faculty, staff and organizations.

Based on user feedback and usage statistics obtained April 2003 and December 2005, the University Web Steering Committee determined that changes should be made to continue to enhance the user experience at CSUCI.

In February 2005, the Web Steering Committee began a planning and development process to determine the scope of changes to the University web site, which resulted in the following set of requirements:

• Address issues raised by the 2004 Web Site Use Survey
• Create a visually pleasing design which accurately represents the campus and University community and makes bold use of color.
• Improve site navigation
• Create content which addresses previously unrepresented web site audiences
• Build a web site structure that is inline with web standards
• Improve Section 508 compliance of University web templates

A design competition resulted in the current design, as selected by the Web Steering Committee. During Spring and Summer 2005, Web Services staff worked with various University constituents to further refine and develop the existing design and web site structure.

In July 2005, a public preview of the web site was unveiled to further solicit feedback from students, faculty, staff and other web site visitors. This feedback was reviewed and incorporated into the web site design prior to its launch.

The resulting web site solution that:

• enhances content flexibility through use of web standards
• has persistent top-level navigation
• features standardized page layout
• provides content-rich landing pages
• leverages existing web-based content management technology
• enables a new digital identity for CSUCI with a vivid, colorful look-and-feel

Related Links

• Web Steering Committee
• About the CSUCI web site