eduStyle || Q & A with Elizabeth Houle of the University of St. Thomas

In July the University of St. Thomas launched a redesigned home page. By September it had been selected as a Noteworthy design by eduStyle users. The following is a Q & A with Elizabeth Houle the Director of Web & Media Services at the University of St. Thomas.

When was the current design of this site launched?

The site was launched July 8th, 2007

Can you give us a quick overview of the project?

The project kicked off in January, with multiple stakeholder interviews, competitive analysis, design, design approval from stakeholders and usability testing before we went live in July.

What was the approximate timeframe of the project?

The interviews were completed in April, so the project was designed and developed between April and July.

What is the size and make-up of your team?

The team consists of 3 primary designers and 2 primary developers, but 3 more secondary team members kept the project and its deliverables on task and time.

Are there aspects of the project you are particularly proud of?

We are proud it was done in-house, the previous three had been outsourced. The functionality we fondly refer to as the drawer with News, Events & Directories; A-Z Index; and Tools.

Were there specific challenges you encountered?

We wanted to create a scent for categories that are somewhat generic to an unfamiliar audience and we were able to do that with this organization.

Creating a system that would accommodate sub-branding by retaining the university brand and allowing sub-branding to occur for example within the colleges with overview and visit site links.

What is something you learned from the project?

We learned that we have some work to do with the community on how to plan for the marketing space we have created and how to track it and anticipate it. For example, some events we know long in advance and need to get them on a content schedule so that we can plan all the campaign work we want to do around and for the event.

What platform does the site use?

We currently, have PHP, MySQL, Java, asp and ColdFusion. We are moving away from ColdFusion and asp, towards java and some rails or php for light weight applications.

What technologies did you take advantage of ?

The drawer is using AJAX and we have some upcoming sites in the system that will be using Flash video.

Does the website use a CMS of any kind?

Yes, Serena Collage.

Could you list the URLs of any articles or news items that present more information about the website.

Are you feeling the itch? Do you want to participate in a future 3 things? Do you have an article or how-to that wants to be published? Drop me a note and you may get your wish.

Q & A with Elizabeth Houle of the University of St. Thomas