About this Site
This current version of the UI home page site is the seventh redesign since it went live in late 1994. Over that time, this site has grown from a single page with a handful of links to a site with 100+ pages that contain over 2,000 unique links. During this same time, the University's central Web presence has grown to well over one million pages that see over one billion hits each month.
Site Goals
The goals for this version of the site were determined to be:
- Provide a quick and simple means of locating information within the larger University Web space
- Create a positive impression of the University
- Provide a “sense of place” for the University’s online presence—college town, beautiful campus, diversity of community and student body, etc.
- Create a sense of the University as dynamic and valuable through placement of select news, events, and marketing-related stories/headlines.
- Serve as a platform for communication with campus audiences, including key campus news items and immediate emergency/crisis information (HawkAlert)
Project to Create the Current Version
This version of the UI home page and supporting site was created by a project team within the Office of University Relations, in consultation with a campus-wide advisory group, and with regular input from campus stakeholders. The core project team included:
- Ann Freerks - Graphic Design
- Charlie Drum - Editor
- Kirk Murray - Photographer
- Wendy Brown - Content and Maintenance
- Modei Akyea - Content and Technical Consultant
- Lois Gray - Content Consultant
- Chris Clair - Content Consultant
- Lin Larson - Content Consultant and Editor
- Josh Kaine - Project Manager and Technical
The project began in September of 2007, with an anticipated release of June 2008. Due to the flood and flood recovery work, the project schedule was extended into fall of this year.
Campus Consultation
A major portion of the project to upgrade the UI home page site involved consultation with campus. The project team consulted several times with the following groups:
- Campus Webmasters Group
- Campus IT Leadership (CITL) group
- Collegiate External Relations Directors
- MarCom (Marketing and Communications Group)
- Faculty Senate
- Staff Council
- UI Student Government
- Health Science Relations & UIHC Joint Office
- Provost & Collegiate Deans
- UI Alumni Association
- UI Foundation
In addition, an advisory group specific to this project and made up of select faculty, staff and student representatives provided valuable input. Special thanks go out this group for their great ideas and regular feedback on the various stages of production:
Maintenance and Upkeep
Many parts of the UI home page change on a scheduled basis. In addition, links within the site change almost constantly during semester. A team of staff from the Office of University Relations tend to the care and feeding of the site:
- Wendy Brown - General Maintenance and Updates
- Charlie Drum - General Maintenance and Updates, plus Webmaster email
- Chris Clair - Events Editor
- Madelaine Jerousek-Smith - Be remarkable Editor
- Sondra Cue - Be remarkable Photos (design)
- Tim Schoon- Be remarkable Photos (photography)
- Tom Jorgensen - Be remarkable Photos (photograpy)
- Debb Thumma - News Headlines
- Ann Freerks - Home Page Photos (design)
- Kirk Murray - Home Page Photos (photography)
- Josh Kaine - General Maintenance and Technology
Contact & Questions
If you have any questions about the site or the project, please contact us through our Contact page: