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Website Redesign

May 5, 2023 Update

A new launch date for the University’s new website has been set for October 2nd, 2023. Changing the date will help with the planning effort, continuing initial work and resource management. The launch of the new website will be an early milestone in the project. Project members will continue to assist departments with migrating their pages for many months after the new website launches.

As mentioned in last week’s update, two new services have been added to the OIT Service Portal to help manage web requests. For departments who depend on Marketing’s team to edit their pages, those requests should now be entered through the OIT Service Portal here: Department Website Edit Request. To report issues with the University’s or a department’s website, use the Website – Report an Issue form. Both services are also available on the right-hand menu of this page.

We had our first departmental meeting this week and will continue having department meetings throughout the project. We will also continue to update campus regularly through these announcements, and the SEM Website Redesign web page. If you have questions or comments, please feel free to email ISU-Website-Info@indstate.edu.

April 28, 2023 Update

The Website Redesign Project team has continued to work, meet, and evaluate the status of the project. The project managers presented their findings and made recommendations to the project sponsors this week. While some of those recommendations are being considered we can share the following information:

  • Meetings between the project team and individual campus departments will begin the week of May 1. Those meetings will continue throughout the life of the project. A department meeting schedule and request mechanism will be available soon.
  • Web page edit requests and issue reporting services will be routed through the OIT Service Portal. Links for those services will be included in next week’s update.
  • The project plan is now being developed, and milestones will be published soon. It will include the launch of the new website design as an early milestone. Work to migrate department pages and train departmental editors will go on for many months beyond that launch.

Exciting things are happening, and we look forward to continued communication and partnership with the campus community.

April 24, 2023 Update

Work continues on the new University Website. The project team is working to clarify and better understand the status of the project. We had several meetings last week with the site developer Carnegie, the content writers, the web development team, and internally.

We know there is a strong desire for departmental meetings to provide additional clarity and input. We will be addressing that in a future update, along with a published departmental migration calendar, milestones, etc. 

We ask for patience while we dig in and develop a strong project management plan for the work ahead. We will continue to meet our commitment to communicate regularly about this important project. 

April 13, 2023 Update

University Marketing and the Office of Information Technology would like to announce new project leadership of the University’s Website Redesign project. Effective April 17, 2023, Micheal Moore and Kristie Bigler from OIT will assume overall project manager responsibilities for the migration of the existing web site to a new platform. The assumption of this project management role for both Micheal and Kristie is in addition to their current positions, and both will continue to report to OIT. Micheal has managed both large and small projects and he has experience updating and managing web site content. Kristie Bigler is well known for the success of the project migrating ISU from Blackboard to Canvas.   

During this partnership, University Marketing will continue to lead efforts related to branding, content, search engine optimization, and other activities related to using the University website as a marketing and recruitment tool and will continue to work with department web editors to maintain content on the old website. Marketing will be responsible for the strategic direction of the new website, and OIT will lead and coordinate the efforts of Carnegie and the university web team to launch the new website and migrate departmental content into the new Drupal 9 system. 

Moving forward, a renewed emphasis will be placed on communicating project information such as milestone progress, current activities, issues, etc., to the entire campus in more detail and on a more frequent basis. This will occur by using campus email announcements and maintaining this web page – very similar to the methods used when migrating from Blackboard to Canvas. This page will serve as the central clearing house for project related progress and information. If you have specific questions about the project, please email ISU-Website-Info@indstate.edu.

Marketing and OIT look forward to collaborating with the campus community to complete this particularly important project that defines the initial contact most prospective students, faculty and employees have with the University.

 

Summer 2022 Update 

  • We are wrapping up the design specs phase of the site (finalizing font families, color choices, etc.).
  • We have identified the pages of focus as part of our PHASE 1 launch (set to go live Dec. ’22) 
    • Phase 1 – ( no later than Dec. ’22)

      • High level, high impact pages targeted at recruitment including academics, admissions, costs and aid, residential/campus life (student life), news, and a few others.
    • Phase 2 and onwards ( until/through Dec. ’23)
      • This plan is being developed with our vendor but will consist of all other sites in Drupal and elsewhere (WordPress, etc.)
      • All other systems and all applicable sites will be migrated into the new system by this time.

Primary Goals:

  • Create a digital experience focused on external audience and target audiences that:

    • Conveys the value of an ISU education
    • Is highly visual, engaging, dynamic and has a seamless user experience
    • Is consistent, dynamic and operates on a flexible platform
  • Reduces clutter, out-dated content, inconsistency and confusion to audiences
  • Allows content creators to operate more efficiently without sacrificing creativity

Milestones/Phases:

The phases for the redesign project are grouped by high level strategy and objective. Many phases will be operating concurrently and the timeline of each is an average tentative goal for completion once started. The timeline goal is to have Phase 5 "Deploy" completed in December '22

  1. Discovery (Dec. '21 - Feb '22) completed
  2. Creative & Content Strategy (July '22)
  3. Design (8-10 weeks) (current)
  4. Implement (12-14 weeks)
  5. Deploy - Phase 1 (8-10 weeks) (Dec '22)
  6. Transition (Dec '23)

Website Vendor Information:

The vendor selected for this project is MStoner, now Carnegie MStoner. They have a proven track record with higher education institutions going through web conversions and have specific knowledge with Drupal and Drupal 9. 

Some of the many institutions they have worked with:

  • Central Michigan University
  • Dakota State University
  • Lipscomb University
  • Purdue University Northwest
  • University of Nebraska Omaha
  • University of North Dakota

Key Deliverables:

Current Status: On Track