Announcing Web Redesign of austincc.edu

The college has begun the vital project of redesigning the top level public facing portion of austincc.edu.  The scope of the project focuses on the most used content on ACC’s website such as our homepage and other landing pages, but also helps areas of the college enhance and update their own web presence through new tools, resources, and technology.

The following is the creative brief for the Web Redesign Project 2011-2012 which sets the tone, scope, and focus of the project. This can, and will be revised moving forward, but it is used as a guidepost for the overall direction we are headed in with the project.

Background:

The Austin Community College website is the college’s most important public facing asset on the World Wide Web. The purpose of the website is to provide all users, including current and prospective students as well as faculty, staff and other audiences with information and serve as a gateway to college services and resources. The information and content that the website provides must be relevant, timely, and useful while at the same time reinforcing ACC’s brand and core mission. The creation and maintenance of this information in conjunction with the appropriate delivery method and executions are vital to student recruitment and success. The College seeks to begin a comprehensive redesign of its web presence.

The Audience:

In accordance with the Student Success Initiative and other programs at ACC, the primary focus will move toward current students and their successful college experience. Secondary audiences will include faculty, staff, and prospective students as well as other smaller groups.

Objectives and Goals:

The goal of the redesign project is to strictly define the College’s website as a key strategic communication asset that supports the College’s priority initiatives, reflects its key messages, and reinforces the College’s brand on the web. The project will encompass reinventing content architectures while enhancing design and user experience. Key goals and measurements include:

• A renewed focus on the user and their needs
• A user experience that allows for the access and provision of the appropriate content and/or service at the required time
• A balanced approach to the unique characteristics of diverse audiences
• A consistent design that coincides with the College’s communication initiatives
• An intuitive information structure that takes into account readability and accessibility requirements.
• Establishing the College’s web presence as the primary gateway to information regarding curriculum, academic and administrative policies, and access to College resources.

Timeline:

Projects of a similar nature have taken anywhere from 12 months to several years based on the scope of the project. Having a product in place within the next 12 months would be optimal, so that it coincides with other projects highlighted in ACC’s Master Plan.

The Responsible Parties:

The Public Information and College Marketing department at Austin Community College has been the initiator and main point of contact for similar projects in the past, and will continue to be so.

This office will:

• Establish process and workflows
• Assist key areas with task completion
• Communicate project progress to the ACC community, while taking input from stakeholders
• Sign off on final executions

The project will be managed by Web Administrator, Edward Terry along with key people within Public Information and College Marketing. Updates to the project will be posted here at the Web Development Blog, and distributed to a wide variety of college audiences and stakeholders.

We are extremely excited to begin this process and hope to produce something that is a pride-point for the college, and the people it serves.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 6th, 2011 at 5:29 pm and is filed under the Web Redesign category or categories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Please leave a response, or trackback from your own site.