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

At the beginning of the spring semester of 2017 The Office of Marketing and Communications conducted research to examine the current state of the main university website.

User research illustration

User Research

Our design team put together a series of questions to interview current faculty, staff, and students about their experience with the existing website. This information help determine what features needed to be added.

Website architecture illustration

Site Architecture

The existing University website architecture was examined in detail. Research found duplicate content which made it difficult for users to navigate the site using site navigation and search engines.

Website wireframe illustration

Wireframes

After gathering enough information on the target audiences, the next step was to put together lo-fidelity wireframes. These wireframes helped define information hierarchy and get feedback from key stakeholders.

 

Design

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

User Experience illustration

User Testing

The wireframe prototypes were tested with current faculty, staff, and with incoming and current students. The information helped our team decide what design option to move forward with.

Visual design illustration

Visual Designs

Once the user research process was complete our design team worked on the UI design for the different sections to layout the main templates and components.

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 & migration

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 (February 20, 2019)

Launch #2: March 13, 2019

Launch #3: March 20, 2019

Launch #4: April 1, 2019

Launch #5: April 17, 2019

Launch #6: May 2, 2019

Launch #7: May 15, 2019

Launch #8: May 20, 2019

Launch #9: May 22, 2019

Launch #10: May 29, 2019

Launch #11: June 12, 2019

Launch #12: June 13, 2019

Launch #13: June 20, 2019

Launch #14: June 26, 2019

Launch #15: July 1, 2019

Launch #16: July 10, 2019

Launch #17: July 31, 2019

Launch #18: August 8, 2019

Feedback

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