The University of Idaho’s website may perform better, look better and be easier to maintain and update it after its renovation is launched Friday, according to the UI Director of Web Communications Josh Paulsen.
Paulsen said the process of redesigning uidaho.edu began a year and a half ago.
“We developed a web strategy and worked with an outside company to come and assist us with this,” he said. “That strategy actually translated into messaging for the new site — that will be up — and the best practices for how the information on the site should be organized. That really led us to these new designs.”
Paulsen said hopefully people will notice the visuals of the new website, and the way information is reorganized for easier navigation.
He said technologies and features used in e-commerce and private industries were employed to better reach the website’s target audience.
“We used that as an opportunity to improve and add some of that functionality into the site,” Paulsen said. “Some of that functionality in launching the site will really come online in the next six months or so.”
He said university websites are extremely large with diverse audiences.
“Rather than having a particular demographic that’s between (ages) 20 and 30, we really have everyone from about 16 to 80 (years old),” Paulsen said. “They have different web skills and purposes for going there, so a lot of the changes we’re making are meant to better accommodate those different types of audiences.”
He said the update will help determine what type of visitor is coming to the site and to meet that specific audience’s needs.
Paulsen said the renovation serves partly as a recruitment tool, and that efforts are underway to increase enrollment at UI.
“This was just really our contribution, I think, to ensuring that the university was presented in the best possible light for student recruitment,” he said.
Feedback from on-campus users about the website also contributed to the renovation, Paulsen said.
“We really wanted to address some of those usability issues that had kind of been plaguing us for a few years,” he said. “Our site was really good but we felt it could be improved upon.”
Paulsen said the university generally redesigns or renovates its website about every three years.
He said people will hopefully respond well to the website’s more contemporary and sophisticated presentation.
Paulsen said a bit of resistance at the beginning of the launch is to be anticipated, as with any new design of this magnitude.
“You may think back to Facebook when they launched their timeline, how up in arms people were,” Paulsen said. “After about two months people kind of died down and went ‘Oh, this works much better.'”
Students are strongly encouraged to provide feedback on the website’s renovation, Paulsen said.
He said responses have been mixed so far.
“We’ve got people who think it’s so much better,” he said. “And then there are other people who — change is inherently hard — so they’re initially really resistant to change, and if that resistance continues for several months, we know we need to make some corrections.”
To learn more about the website’s new features or to provide feedback, visit uidaho.edu/newdesign.