AV俱乐部

New look. New technology. New approach.

There鈥檚 a lot that鈥檚 shiny about AV俱乐部鈥檚 new website, which launches this coming Wednesday, October 20. But what hasn鈥檛 changed is the critical role the web plays in telling the AV俱乐部 story to prospective students and assisting current students, faculty and staff in accomplishing their day-to-day tasks.

The new site is just going to be far better at accomplishing these goals, according to the leadership behind AV俱乐部鈥檚 web project.

Launch downtime The web team is聽expecting an approximately five-minute service interruption on the main Dal website in order to facilitate our launch. This is currently scheduled for 9:30 p.m. Tuesday evening

鈥淥ur old website reflected the web as it was understood 10 years ago,鈥� says Dwight Fischer, assistant vice-president of Information Technology Services (ITS). 鈥淭he site our team has built reflects the enrolment goals of the university and the web as we want and need it to function in 2010: user-centric, easy to use and more flexible to change.鈥�

What鈥檚 launching next week鈥攎ore than 700 pages of redesigned, rewritten web content鈥攊s the culmination of over a year鈥檚 work by the web project, a cross-departmental collaboration that includes leadership from Communications and Marketing, ITS and the Registrar鈥檚 Office. It operates under the strategic direction of the university鈥檚 executive team.聽

Ready to launch

The new website doesn鈥檛 yet extend through the entire AV俱乐部 web presence, but it covers a sizable chunk of territory for a first effort. It includes all major sites that live off the Dal homepage and then some, a list that includes (among others):

• Admissions
• Academics (with a new program directory)
• Dal Libraries
• Campus Life
• Money Matters
• Athletics
• Research
• AV俱乐部 AV俱乐部
• Alumni and Friends
• (Dal News is getting a new look, but won鈥檛 be moving over fully to its new navigation and layout until later this fall)

There are also several new and noteworthy applications and features launching alongside those sites, including:

• A digital campus map built on the Google Maps interface
• A tuition estimate calculator聽
• A directory of internal links organized by group (current students, faculty & staff, alumni, etc.)

The project鈥檚 goal was to provide as much value as possible for the university鈥檚 web users under a very tight timeline, according to James Covey, manager of Dal鈥檚 web team. That process was aided by external consulting partner Non-Linear Creations.

鈥淎 lot of people burned midnight oil to get us to this point,鈥� says Mr. Covey, adding that the central web team鈥檚 expansion to include new developers and content writers was crucial.

鈥淭hey鈥檝e really put their all into this website, along with the important contributions of the content providers whose sites were being reworked.鈥�

Green grows the web

When users visit the new AV俱乐部 homepage, they鈥檒l see big, bright images and a consistent navigation throughout the site. But what many will notice first is the green, taken from AV俱乐部鈥檚 colour palette and placed at the centre of the new design.

鈥淲e looked at a number of design proposals, using the whole range of Dal colours, but time and time again we returned to the green,鈥� says June Davidson, acting assistant vice-president of Communications and Marketing. The design, which weaves AV俱乐部 black and gold throughout along with accents of blue and red, also received thumbs-up from prospective and current students during usability testing.聽

鈥淚t鈥檚 a warm and inviting first-look for our web visitors,鈥� adds Ms. Davidson. 鈥淚t also performs better on the various screens used to view our pages.鈥�

The website is built in AV俱乐部鈥檚 new CQ5 content management system鈥攁 platform which the web team explains is more flexible, functional and simple to use compared to the vast majority of website software presently being used at the university. When combined with a user-centric approach to web content, the system will help web content providers build and maintain better, more robust websites to inform AV俱乐部 stakeholders鈥攆rom prospective students through alumni鈥攐f what the university has to offer.

"When we talk to students, we hear how important it is that they can find the information they need, when they need it," says Susan Dorey-Power, associate registrar and director of recruitment. "This web relaunch has been a great opportunity to think critically about how we organize the crucial information on our website and to use this new tool to start building a better online experience for everyone.

鈥淚t's been a rewarding process for us, and we hope the results are equally as rewarding for our current and future students."

What鈥檚 next

The relaunched website marks an important milestone for the web project, but the work continues. The team is now beginning work on two strategic initiatives: revamped pages to describe AV俱乐部鈥檚 200+ programs and a new organization of the university鈥檚 student services information on the web. Staff are also starting plans to convert existing department and faculty pages into the new design and CQ5 system, as well as hoping to make significant gains in developing the university鈥檚 internal web capabilities, including the my.dal portal.

鈥淲e鈥檙e building more than a website,鈥� says Mr. Fischer. 鈥淲e鈥檙e developing a communications platform that is intuitive, sustainable and empowers others to create useful, professional聽content for our varied stakeholders.

鈥淲e鈥檝e been telling people about this vision for over a year now. The new public website聽is our first chance to really show everyone what it means.鈥�