New-Look Website Goes Live
25 October 2012
University Marketing Director Peter Allen and Web and Publications Manager Francey Begum with the new website and publications
The website is the University's largest and primary information source, making it an important communication tool to engage with our external stakeholders. We've started the changes with its most public and used pages, and as time goes on staff will see their sections changing and improving.
”Francey Begum
One of the University's new publications
The University's website has been given a crisp new look for the start of the 2012/13 academic year. Connected talks to the team behind the revamp and asks: What's next?
It was a very early start indeed for the University's Web and Publications team on Monday September 24.
After months of work by the small team, fellow Marketing colleagues and IT Services, the University of Derby's new-look website was launched onto the worldwide web.
It includes a redesigned home page, 'front pages' aimed more at the outside world, better navigation tools and drop-down menus, and new content sections for the prospective student. A new site search facility is based on Google technology, and there are new course search options and information pages. More audio visual content and social media has now been integrated into the new site.
Francey Begum, Web and Publications Manager, said: "I've been involved with this project from day one of my starting at the University, just ten months ago, so you can imagine how delighted I was when the launch went so smoothly. This new site certainly makes us stand out from the crowd and is a key platform for us to communicate our core values and messages.
"The website is the University's largest and primary information source, making it an important communication tool to engage with our external stakeholders. We've started the changes with its most public and used pages, and as time goes on staff will see their sections changing and improving."
The new look for the website got an early try-out when the rebranding was applied to the Clearing pages, which went live before the announcement of this August's (2012) A level results.
Peter Allen, Marketing Director for the University, believes the huge increase in traffic to this part of the website, compared with previous years, was a good test a 'thumbs up' from prospective students for its appearance and usability.
He added: "Our prospective students are, in the main, great users of the web, and digital and social media generally. To them it is a natural part of their daily lives.
"If Derby is to stay on their radar we must keep updating our web and digital presence."
The new website launch is the first phase of a much larger project.
Other parts to follow in the coming weeks and into 2013 will be the redevelopment of University Schools' websites and Departments' sites.
A project to identify the University's intranet requirements for content relevant to internal staff and students will also be initiated this semester. Until a solution is developed for housing internal content it can still be found via the search engine on the website and in its original locations.
Lee Knapton, Content Management System (CMS) Replacement Project Manager in IT Services, said: "It's been a really rewarding experience working on this project particularly considering the amount of positive feedback we've received since launch. There will inevitably be some disruption while the changeover happens but it will be well worth it in the end.
"The new website content management system also brings major benefits to the whole organisation, as it offers greater flexibility to manage and develop content going forward."
He added "Clearly, our work isn't finished yet. Staff will have noticed the one month freeze on content changes following the launch of the rebranded website. This is to allow us to organise, plan and gain the appropriate approvals for any change requests."
Anybody with questions about the new website or wanting to give feedback can contact the web project team on internal extension 1258 or email: websitereplacement@derby.ac.uk
The Project UDO intranet page can be found at https://udo.derby.ac.uk/sites/projects/Sites/cms/SitePages/Home.aspx
