The College of William & Mary
Below are the results of an email interview we did with Susan Evans of The College of William & Mary in April of this year. She was happy to share lots of useful information about her team, their redesign project, and how it all came together.
The College of William & Mary website was selected Noteworthy for September 2008 and most recently was reviewed in The eduStyle Guide to Usable Higher-Ed Homepage Design.
Can you give us a high-level view of the project (start, finish dates, goals, vision, etc)?
The pre-planning phase of re.web (the William & Mary web redesign project) began in November 2007 and the project was officially announced in February 2008. During pre-planning phase, we talked with key stakeholders, established the advisory committee, conducted informal interviews with web consultants, and checked in with other schools that had undertaken similar projects. As it turned out, this pre-planning effort allowed us to move more quickly once the project was officially announced to our campus.
We launched our new site and new web content management system on July 31, 2008, about 17 months later.
The goal of the re.web project was to create and deploy an integrated web communication strategy. We hoped for a site that would reflect both the historic and innovative aspects of our campus. We also wanted to offer a new design and new way of managing websites that would be attractive to all web editors at the university.
What motivated the start of the project?
The former design and structure for the W&M website was nearly nine years old. The design was stale and there was no global navigation. There was no information architecture to speak of – all sites were folders at the root of the web server and the site search was very weak.
Like many websites, it had been in place for a while and no central campus unit was managing it effectively. In the hundreds of people I talked with during the project, I never heard from anyone that the site did not need to be redesigned.
Finally, William & Mary web editors were managing their sites using a set of homegrown, php-based templates and a homegrown content management system. These systems were aging and we wanted to offer a superior option for managing content in departmental websites.
What are some specific things about the previous design that you were aiming to correct in this latest design?
At the outset of the project, an integrated design deployed with a central web content management system was the target. We wanted a rock-solid IA, well-tested global navigation, a classy design, and engaging copy that represented what is special about our 316-year-old school.
Can you tell us about some aspects of the project you are particularly proud of?
I am particularly proud that all William & Mary units came together for this campus-wide effort. We launched a new site for the College in July 2008 and by August 2009, all graduate and professional schools will offer complementary sites using the central CMS. We anticipate that we will have successfully relaunched (transitioned) all official William & Mary departmental sites within twelve months after the launch of the new top-level site.
I am also extremely proud of my team – there were just five of us during the redesign phase. I will always be grateful for the personal sacrifices each of them made during the final four months.
What are some specific challenges you encountered?
After nearly 18 months of transparent communication, we realized about eight weeks before launch that we needed to STOP communicating with the campus. This was a struggle for us because ongoing communication was the signature of the re.web project. But in the final eight weeks, we had an unspeakable amount of work left to do – so we needed a concentrated work period and a singular focus. Also, we realized that until our new site launched, people on campus had the false impression that design and functionality were still up for discussion. So we took ourselves out of situations (presentations, meetings, popular lunch spots, etc.) where campus constituents could ask us to make a design change or force us to admit that a nice-to-have functionality wouldn’t be there at launch.
Another big struggle centered around global navigation. Everyone supported it during the design phase; but once individual units began to plan more concretely about their own web pages, some thought the global navigation contained links that their visitors “would never need.” We held firm and all is well.
What is something you learned from the project?
We learned a lot – here are some standouts:
A big surprise to us was that most people focus on the technology of their website instead of their content. Everybody wants to talk about how the CMS will work, what can be done to save their effort, why they can’t have more whiz bang, and when the search will improve… But having a serious conversation about content development is viewed as an unmentionable – an annoyance, and sometimes an after thought. More discouraging is that some will use what they view as a deficiency in the technology as an iron clad excuse not to write better content. We’re gently and gradually making content KING on our campus.
Living with uncertainty is hard. For most people, managing the unknowns is difficult and that was definitely our experience. While you’re working on web strategy, you start to worry about choosing a design that everyone will like. Once you get design nailed down, you start to panic about who’s going to write all that new content. And throughout, you’re hoping you don’t get chased off campus because you pick a web CMS that is not easy to use. We started to feel better about all of the uncertainty once we bought into the process. And, it was immensely comforting to have the years of experience (including war stories) of the mStoner team at our disposal.
We didn’t completely figure out video content – has anyone? We are working now on a strategy for multimedia. We have a few gems on our site now and there are lots of ideas swirling around: student-produced content, ongoing webcasts…. The W&M Web Team had been promised a new multimedia web position in the next fiscal year; but given Virginia’s current budget crisis, we aren’t likely to get the new position. We will need to figure this out without additional resources. We know we need to do more.
Who developed the visual design of the site? (internal team, external agency, etc)
The visual design for the William & Mary site was developed externally by mStoner. I put together an internal design team that reviewed the design concepts they proposed. The mStoner designers were incredibly talented, flexible, and patient as we considered and evaluated the options. The internal design team included members of the web redesign project team, the director of admission, the direction of publications, and the campus photographer.
What were some of the sources of inspiration for the visual design?
mStoner spent hours talking with campus stakeholders, faculty and current students. After these small group meetings and based on feedback from a survey of prospective students, mStoner offered a web strategy that included some unique themes and messages for the new William & Mary site. When we first saw the three design concepts, we knew that mStoner had nailed it – they clearly understood the William & Mary ethos and had captured it in the mock ups.
What advice would you give looking back at the project?
I would give two pieces of advice – 1) manage the internal communication and 2) announce a launch date.
1) Internal communication. I have often said that the web redesign at William & Mary was 20% technology and 80% not. Managing campus communication for a web redesign contributes to the requisite consensus and enthusiasm for such projects. In a nutshell, our internal communication plan was rooted in a philosophy of transparency.
It’ll come as no surprise that we used the web to communicate about re.web – our communication strategy included a project website (http://www.wm.edu/reweb), a project blog (http://reweb.blogspot.com), campus presentations, and the now underestimated power of the personal visit.
Joel Pattison and I offered a presentation at HighEdWeb 2008 called “Getting Them to the Table, and Keeping Them There” (http://www.highedweb.org/wordpress/?p=122). The presentation chronicles re.web communication and a companion handout is available on my personal site (http://wmpeople.wm.edu/asset/index/stevan/highedweb2008handout).
2) Announce a launch date. We publicly announced the July 31 launch date for our new site on April 2. For the seasoned project managers out there, this end date will come as a no brainer. Nothing keeps you in line more than a deadline. And as you get to the end game, you need the deadline to help you prioritize and make the hard decisions. When you have unlimited time, you are more likely to have an elastic scope (i.e., you’ll agree to add or change almost anything). To be frank, by June 1, we were really glad it was almost over.
What technologies did you take advantage of? (AJAX, APIs, Flash video, etc)
We are using Flash video for the William & Mary site.
What area headed the project? Was there a committee? Who was involved in the committee? Is a standing or just for the project?
The W&M web redesign was led by Information Technology. We also had a 12-member project advisory committee with key stakeholders represented. This project advisory committee has morphed into a larger and permanent campus web advisory committee.
The core project team was small – five very talented and knowledge web professionals were key and did the lion share of the work. Many others volunteered time and expertise – most notably, our dean of admission, the director of publications, the director of research communication, the campus photographer, and many communication and design professionals on campus.
What type of user feedback or testing did you use? (usability test, feedback forms, beta site, blog, etc). Can you describe how you tested or gathered feedback? At what stage of the project? How did it influence the final design?
During the design phase, we used web-based surveys to get feedback on the three design concepts from prospective and early decision students. We also conducted small focus groups with on campus faculty, staff and students. Focus group participants completed a feedback form.
About three months before launch, we conducted usability testing with the help of mStoner. Using More software and a script of tasks developed jointly with our mStoner partners, we tested our site with students in Chicago who fit the prospective student profile established by our admission office.
Throughout the re.web project, we used our blog to gather opinions, impressions, and suggestions on everything from navigation, to colors, to photography, to font (I could keep going on the list here …)
We soft launched our site two weeks prior to the official launch, asking our campus community to preview the site and send feedback. With their help, we picked off errors and made adjustments before the public launch.
What was you reaction when you found out that your site had been selected as a Noteworthy design by the eduStyle community?
We were thrilled, of course. We referenced it on our blog as a way to highlight it to the W&M community – http://wmwebteam.wmblogs.net/2008/09/03/my-style/
We were also nervous; we knew the site wasn’t perfect but having just launched it, we wanted everyone to love it.
Could you list the URLs of any articles or news items that present more information about the website.
The re.web project website:
http://www.wm.edu/reweb
The re.web project blog:
http://reweb.blogspot.com
The end of the re.web blog and the first post on the new W&M Web Team Blog:
http://wmwebteam.wmblogs.net/2008/07/31/a-new-beginning/
William & Mary News story about the launch of the new website:
http://www.wm.edu/news/stories/2008/collegelaunchesredesignedwebsite-0731.php
Interview on mStoner Blog:
http://www.mstoner.com/index.php/blog/comments/proust_questionnaire_susan_evans_college_of_william_mary/
William & Mary Web Team Profiles
Susan T. Evans – Director of Web and Communication Services
Susan directs W&M web communications – overseeing web strategy and content, managing the transition to the new design and information architecture, and serving on the president’s strategic communication team. Susan began working at the College in 1989, moving from Human Resources to IT in 1998. She has held her current position since 2001.
Andrew Bauserman – Senior Web Architect
Andrew is a William & Mary alumnus, working at the College since 2001. He consults on the construction and implementation of technologies to support the W&M web presence.
Tina Coleman – Managing Editor of the William & Mary Web
Tina has worked at the College for 20 years and is responsible for editorial control of the top-level W&M web presence. She directs the largest website launches, manages the W&M Blogs and coordinates the development of content.
Joel Pattison – Designer and Project Manager
Joel has been contributing to the W&M web for nearly five years. He is the senior designer, evaluates usability, and manages the development and implementation of web products and services.
Mark Windley – CMS Administrator and Web Project Manager
Mark is an alumnus of the College, working at W&M for nearly five years. He manages the W&M content management system, directing its use for multiple sites and extending its functionality to support communication and business needs.
