AT A TIME WHEN HIGHER ED institutions are facing deep budget cuts, delayed projects, hiring freezes, or even worse, it has never been as important to have a website up to par as it is now. So what can you do if your latest web redesign was done a few years ago and there’s no sign that the long-awaited budget to launch a major overhaul project will become a reality in the upcoming budget?
Don’t let such a strategic marketing and communication channel fall even further behind. Instead, get creative and try to tackle a complete DIY redesign. Or just begin with small, incremental website improvements.
Institutional websites
should not be designed
as an exercise of style,
self-expression, or
political orientation.
“If you don’t have the time or resources for a full-scale redesign, you can do incremental redesign, a little here and a little there,” explains Stewart Foss, founder of eduStyle, the web design gallery dedicated to higher education websites, and co-author of The eduStyle Guide to Usable Higher Ed Homepage Design, an e-book. In fact, it’s possible to fix most problems without the need of a redesign committee or a substantial budget. If these incremental redesigns are subtle, most people won’t even really know what has changed, just that the website is better.
Not sure where to start with a redesign-on-a-dime project? Compiled with the help and the suggestions of several web professionals working in universities and colleges across the country, the following list of inexpensive—and often free—resources can help an institution’s web team achieve great results on (or without) a budget during three key steps of a website redesign or realignment.
1. Speed up your trends research.
Most web design experts agree on the importance of the research and discovery phase for any redesign project. To know where you want to go, it’s crucial to know where you are and what your competitive environment looks like. Whether in search of the latest trends, tips from people in the trenches, or just inspiration, make sure to look at these websites.
• eduStyle: This constantly updated web design gallery was launched in January 2007. It is powered by more than 2,000 higher education web design professionals. Users submit, review, and comment on websites from institutions of higher education. Access and membership to eduStyle are free.
• Edu Checkup: Launched in October 2008 by Nick DeNardis, associate director of Web Communications at Wayne State University (Mich.), this video blog is the perfect companion to the eduStyle gallery. In each episode, DeNardis reviews and evaluates a website, pointing out worst and best practices along with some practical tips.
• Future Endeavor: Authored by Tony Dunn, web content management system coordinator at California State University, Chico, this blog offers observations and analyses of web design principles implemented on university websites. Started in 2006, it was developed as a personal space to gather information, prepare the case of the redesign project, and build a strong foundation for a website redesign currently implemented in-house at Chico.
2. Find out (on the cheap) what your web users do and want.
User-centered design is (or should be) at the center of any redesign project. Institutional websites are meant to be useful and used by their target audiences. They should not be designed as an exercise of style, self-expression, or political orientation. While traditional usability studies are known to be very costly, the following tools are helpful in basing design decisions on facts and not mere assumptions.
• Google Analytics: The analytics application offered by Google is one of the best tools out there. Widely used by institutions across the country, GA requires a two-step installation process: (1) copy GA code snippet, and (2) paste GA code in the website’s footer. It offers user-friendly reports on web usage with powerful filters and overlay click tracking, and it is 100 percent free to use.
• Crazy Egg: Need to get more visual insights on how a website is used? Then this easy-to-use web service can help you reach your goal. On its heat maps, Crazy Egg shows the hot links of a webpage and will even segment those clicks by different criteria (e.g., referrers, search terms, operating systems) with its new Confetti feature. Offered as a subscription in several tiers depending on the amount of tracked usage, it starts at $9 per month for up to 10,000 visits.
