Posts by Michael Vedders

The past two days we've held sessions to present the process of the website redesign. At the start of the redesign we had two internal goals. First, ensure the redesign was a process, not a one-time project. Second, involve the community along the way.

During the meetings we unpacked five parts of the process that have brought us to where we are:

Partner:

We knew from the start one of the biggest decisions would be to select the right partner. Several nationally recognized firms sent us proposals, and we brought three firm on campus to present their proposals in person. From these presentations mStoner stood out from the rest. The team we're working from their firm has proven to be a valuable partner.

Strategy:

Strategy included three key parts: stakeholder intake, competitor analysis, and testing. We spoke into how each of these three areas informed both the scope of the project and the design of each concept.

Concepts:

Based off the information collected in the strategy phase, three separate concepts were created by three different designers—each taking a different look at a potential Bethel website. During the meetings, we walked through each of these concepts to dig a bit deeper into the process that went into their development.

Feedback:

Lastly, we presented results from the survey that was released to four main groups: prospective students, current students, faculty/staff, and alumni/parents. Based on the feedback from each of these groups, the steering committee selected concept two as the new face to Bethel's website.

There were a lot of great questions and comments discussed during the meetings. If you were unable to attend, scan through some of our past posts for information about where we've been. If you have additional comments or questions, feel free to send me an email (vedmic@bethel.edu).

One of the things I enjoy about my job as the director of web technology is getting to dream up solutions to peoples problems. Occasionally we get to implement some of those solutions for our team.

Last week we launched two new widgets. The first, a visual timeline that displays our progress throughout the redesign. The second is an email subscription to our blog that delivers blog posts directly to your email.  Check them out and let us know if they are helpful by commenting on this post.

In an attempt to communicate the status of the web redesign project, we wanted to spend some time recapping where we've been and where we are headed. 

Where we've come from

The past month has been very busy for our team. On top of managing the day to day tasks that come our way we've also worked on several redesign projects. The past month and a half looked something like this:

• 4/14 - 4/16 Onsite stakeholder interviews
• 4/28 Intake with steering committee
• 5/7 - 5/8 Wireframing with mStoner in Chicago
• 5/15 Wishlist meeting with CAS admissions and academic departments
  
• 5/17- 5/20 Strategy document work
• 5/20 Wishlist meeting with SEM admissions and academic departments
  
• 5/21 Intake with Web Services and presentation of strategy document to the presidents strategy team
• 5/28 Wishlist meeting with CAPS/GS admissions
• 6/3 Worked with the library on possible internal and external templates
  

Where we are headed

We have a lot of things to do. In the weeks to come we will be focused on:

• 6/8 - 6/15 Creating a collective wishlist
  
• 6/10 Launching new technical infrastructure
• 6/8 - 6/23 Working on the internal architecture of the new site
• 6/23 -6/24 Onsite user testing with mStoner
• 6/30 Second draft of the strategy document prepped for presentation
  

mStoner introduced us to a new way of looking at the web.  Its something collectively defined as the "papernet."  During our trip to Chicago we took part in a several hour cut and paste session, ultimately resulting in 10 good site templates. Our goal, to come up with the raw elements of each template while avoiding design.

Papernet Gallery

40 cups of coffee + 5 guys + 2 days and 1 gigantic whiteboard = a good start to a strategy document

Mark and I took off at 4:00 a.m. on last Thursday morning to meet the mStoner crew in Chicago.  Our object was to sus out details related to the web strategy document. We outlined global, topical, and audience based navigation.  We worked on putting together 10 of our 12 page templates, we talked about content, looked at information architecture and survived one crazy cab ride back to the airport.

All in all it was a great trip.

Mark and I will be heading off to Chicago this week to work with mStoner on the outline document that was created after the stakeholder interview sessions.

Our object is to:

• define high level site structure
• discuss messaging
• create a preliminary features list
• and wireframe potential solutions

Once this is done we will be heading back to campus to continue stakeholder feedback and further flesh out the strategy with both the Web Services team and the University.

Many of you have inquired about our content management system, called Silva, asking if we'll be getting a new one during the redesign. For some of you, the prospect of a new system is exciting. For others, the prospect is terrifying.

In light of that, Web Services is working to create a win-win for both groups. We won't be getting rid of Silva during this redesign. However, we'll be making some drastic improvements—starting with a upgrade sometime this summer that will fix and improve a number of baseline features.

Later this year, we'll roll out larger changes to the core of Silva. Please check back for announcements about these upcoming changes. I think you'll find that in the end we'll have a much improved content management system.

It's not easy to select a vendor to partner with.  Its kind of like looking for a new best friend. You know, someone you are going to hang out with late into the evenings, who is going to provide constructive criticism, someone who is going to make you better then you are now.  I guess the only real difference is that a vendor gets paid.

I'm sitting here wondering to myself, why is it so hard to create good websites? Certainly it can be done.  We see examples of it every day, yet it just doesn't seem that easy. Maybe its because designing sites requires such a diverse set of skills.  One has to write like C.S. Lewis, have an aesthetic eye like Vincent van Gogh and architect structure like Frank Lloyd Wright. Put them all together and what do you get; a man named Lewis Van GoghLloyd Wright who can design good websites.

This is my first web services blog post. I want to say I am excited about what's to come this year. I'm anticipating a lot of work, but hopefully we will be able to successfully communicate what its like to work, live, teach, and go to school at one of the greatest Christian organizations in the world.