We have launched!

As many of you know, Lincoln University has been hard at work for a number of months, developing a new look and feel for the LU website.

After the close of business on January 22, the web development team put the new design into production for the world to see.

I thought you might like to have a heads-up so you can be aware of some of the things that are different on the new LU website:

1. Buttons and navigation: There are different labels on the buttons and drop-down menus were added to help you get more quickly to the places you go most often.
2. Quick Links: Some of the links have changed on the Quick Links drop-down. Most notably, Faculty & Staff has been moved to the Quick Links drop down. This was done to continue to keep faculty and staff information on the website while the University begins to work toward the development of an intranet and portal.
3. Page layout: There will be three different page layouts on the new design so be sure to check them all out.
4. Home page slideshow: There are new photos and stories on the home page. Be sure to check them out and watch for new ones.
5. Photo headers: Every page on the newly designed site includes a photo from Lincoln’s campus.
   Fixed width pages: This will make all pages on Lincoln’s site the same width. You may find some pages that are too wide for the new design and, as a result, disrupt the page layout. If you do encounter a page that is too wide for the new design, I would greatly appreciate it if you would forward the page number or title to me at webmaster@lincolnu.edu and I will notify the content manager so it can be corrected.

There are many, many, more changes that I’m sure you will enjoy discovering.

I will continue to host the redesign blog and invite you to provide your feedback. With your input and support, we will continue to improve the site over the upcoming months.

Comment Results

Redesign Comment Results

I’ve gotten all the comments pulled together (those posted on or before May 9, 2008 ) and put together a site so everyone can see the results.

The flash presentation under “Survey Results” are the actual graphs that were generated by our survey software. Your responses will help us make the LU site easy to navigate and easy on the eyes.

http://w3.lincolnu.edu/~dev/results/blogresults.html

Intern Wanted

Thanks to everyone for the great response on the mock ups! This week I’ll begin organizing and compiling the comments I received. Once I have the numbers, I’ll post them for everyone to see.

As I gear up for the big changes to Lincoln’s website, I’m starting to work on getting a replacement for my student intern who moved onto a new internship this summer. If you’re a student at Lincoln, have some experience with web design and/or graphics and would like to intern with OIT in web services for the summer, come by Schweiss Hall, room 102 and let me know. With the redesign coming, I think this will be a very interesting and educational internship!

Mock up #1

This design was submitted by Michael T. Henderson.  Michael works here at Lincoln and has created a wide array of graphics for various purposes.  This design incorporates a new navigation structure which utilizes dual button bars.  The top bar is static throughout the site and the bottom bar will change to reflect pertinent areas of the page the user is currently viewing.  This design uses a splash image that will link to a feature story or piece of information.  The home page design will be mimicked on the major landing pages so each area can highlight information for their specific area. 

Clicking on the image below will take you to a developmental site where you can see the basic functionality of the hover navigation.   When the site is developed, the bottom-level navigation bar that you see here will be links.  In this mock up design, it’s only displaying the sub-navigation text to give everyone an idea of what content is planned for each area.

Mock up #2

I created this design in an effort to incorporate the marketing material Lincoln uses for admissions recruiting.  The “Dream Big” theme and splash of red is a part of the branding used in that material.  The web strategies committee also expressed an interest in utilizing a design with a home page that displays without scroll.  The news and upcoming events items are dynamically generated, giving a large portion of the page fresh content on a regular basis, preventing the site from having a “stale” air about it.  The navigation structure is new and also rolls out a second bar when the tabs are hovered.

Clicking on the image below will take you to a developmental site where you can see the basic functionality of the hover navigation.   When the site is developed, the bottom-level navigation bar that you see here will be links.  In this mock up design, it’s only displaying the sub-navigation text to give everyone an idea of what content is planned for each area.