University of Calgary

Web

Background

The University website is part of the organizational strength of our institution and is an increasingly strong medium for internal and external communication. Students and prospective students are computer literate and savvy; they turn to the Internet first to find the information they need and want. In a survey with 2005 entering students, 81.5% said they used the web to research university options.

Student Services has received a good deal of informed feedback from students regarding the inconsistency between web pages. Not only does our look change from faculty to faculty and department to department but the functionality and navigation changes. This creates a frustrating and disjointed website experience and doesn't reflect well on us.

The University of Calgary redesigned its web site so it better serves its users and offers our staff better tools. The design offers improved, more intuitive navigation (as determined by our testing with students) and reflects a bolder but cleaner look. Parallel to this strategic design project, Information Technologies implemented a web content management system to help simplify the creation of web sites using the new design.


Why change?

The new design, its subsequent templates, and the new web content management moves our web communications forward while still allowing departments to personalize their content. Users want consistency when navigating through the site; a unified website design can provide that. The templates, guidelines, and content management system make it easy for webmasters and designers across campus to adopt the new design and offer consistent functionality and navigation.

Style Guide

University Relations, in conjunction with Information Technologies, has created a website style guide which outlines the layout and usage policies of the templates.

Note: The University of Calgary recently introduced a new website template. For all sites utilizing the 2006 template, the style guide 2006 guide (updated March 2007) applies. For all sites utilizing the 2010 template, the updated style guide applies (updated September 2010).