This March marked the unveiling of UD's new home page-the result of almost a year's effort involving individuals, teams and units across the campus. UD's new web site <http://www.udel.edu> is marked by a strong customer orientation and a design that provides easy access to information about the University
for its major audiences, including faculty, students, parents, staff, alumni and friends.
Carl Jacobson, director of UD's Management Information Services (MIS) in Information Technologies, who oversaw the web refresh project, says the new site is highly functional and helps users to find answers and to complete tasks.
"When UD's web was first designed, it logically followed the organizational structure of the University."
Web page headings took users to individual departments and units, such as the library, registrar, admissions and career services.
But, Jacobson explains, for most users, completing tasks is more important than UD's internal organization. For example, students want to be able to order a cap and gown, get through senior checkout, and drop and add courses, but they may not and don't necessarily need to know that the University Bookstore is responsible for ordering caps and gowns or that the registrar's office is involved in senior checkout.
"The refreshed web," Jacobson says, "serves
its users by customer group-whether they be students, prospective students, parents, visitors, faculty or staff members.
"UD's Student Services Building is a good example of what we are trying to achieve with the new web," Jacobson says. "At the Student Services Building, a student can receive the services he or she needs, and it doesn't matter what office the services come from. We want to accomplish the same level of service through the web."
The project to refresh the web started in April 1998 with the establishment of the Web Media Team, led by Joy Lynam, a manager in MIS, and with representatives from units across the campus.
Lynam explains that glitz--such as hearing sounds and seeing moving pictures when you visit a web site--has drawbacks, particularly because it takes time for some users to load such pages. UD's new site offers such glitz as options on the user's part. "If you want to hear the carillon in Memorial Hall, for example, you'll be able to click to hear it," she says, "but you won't hear the chimes on the home page."
The emphasis is on functionality, making the web event- and service-driven, complemented by
a subtle design, Lynam stresses.
Lynam says response from students, faculty, staff and alumni has been thoughtful and positive. One student wrote, "I love the new page and so do my friends. It's a great piece of web work," and another called the new site "amazing." An alumnus called the new home page "very professional" and "a good representation of the University."
The next stage involves similar customer-oriented development of web sites for the colleges and departments.
"Each page has a link that offers an opportunity for user feedback," Lynam says, "and these comments from users will bring other areas of need to light. What's been so rewarding about this project," she adds, "is that people have told us, 'We want to do it! Tell us what you need!' and 'Show us how to do it.' The response has been very positive."
The ongoing effort will not stop when the current college and campus teams have finished their web refreshment projects, Jacobson says.
"As our web and institutional needs change, we'll make modifications," he says. "We won't leave the web alone for three years and then do a major overhaul. Just as in the case of our buildings, we will have scheduled maintenance. This is an ongoing project, and we'll be improving continually.
"The University carefully planned the design, beauty and functionality of the University's Mall," Jacobson adds. "As many people see UD on the web as visit us in Newark. Our web deserves the same planning and attention."
-Ed Okonowicz, AS'69, '84M