Website Redesign

Goals

Accessibility The University website needs to be accessible to all users regardless of disability or device.
Accessibility, an inclusive practice of removing barriers so all users have equal access to information and functionality.
Top Tier Research The only University in Nevada to achieve U.S. News and World Report Tier 1 AND Carnegie Classification® R1 research institution.
R1 and US News & World Report logos
Current Faculty & Staff A focus on providing resources for current Faculty, Staff, and Students.
Faculty and Students
User Experience With millions of users per year visiting the website, an improved experience, no matter the device, is what we strive to accomplish.
Improved User Experience
 

Discovery

Beginning in the spring semester of 2017 initial research was conducted to examine the current state of the main university website

User research illustration

Research

The Office of Marketing and Communications researched best practices and modern design trends. Current faculty, staff, and students were interviewed about the current website to become better informed about what works and doesn't work.

Website architecture illustration

Site architecture

Beginning during the fall semester of 2017, the University website site architecture was examined. Research found inaccessible and duplicate content made it difficult for users to navigate the site using site navigation and search engines.

Website wireframe illustration

Wireframes

Using a research driven approach, the Web Interface Designers put together lo-fidelity wireframes to define the information hierarchy of the major templates for the website redesign.  Each wireframe option provided the user with a fresh user experience not seen within Higher Education.

 

Design

An iterative process with key stakeholders including faculty, staff, current, and prospective students, the initial designs evolved.

Digital design illustration

Digital Designs

Initial hand drawn designs were transformed into black & white digital designs.

User Experience illustration

User Experience Testing

Greyscale mockups were tested with current faculty, staff, and students. With the focus on the user experience, users with tested on the usability of a new design and way of navigating.

Front end development

Front-end development

Before a dynamic page can be created, the pieces of the page are examined and broken out into components. Each component is developed using HTML and JavaScript, then tested for WCAG 2.0 Level AA accessibility.

 

Development

Development ranging from a new CMS version to translation of static HTML designs into dynamic web pages spanned over a year

Screenshot of v10 Ingeniux CMS

Content Management System Improvements

In conjunction with the Office of Information Technology, a new version of the Content Management System was installed. Left behind were the 90's style designs, replaced with modern colors and a more user friendly experience.

Screenshot of several Visual Studio screens of back-end website code

Back-end coding

Once initial designs were approved, back-end development begun. Starting with the homepage, a new University of Nevada, Reno website experience began to take shape.

 

Content Building

With numerous pages on the website content migration from the old CMS to the new CMS is a process and not a single day event New content will begin February 20th and continue throughout 2019

Initial Launch

Feedback

Have a question or comment about the new design. Please let us know.