Preview the new Concordia.ca home page
Curious about what the new Concordia.ca will look like before it’s launched in early August? Here’s your chance to preview the home, news and events pages, and provide your feedback.
The new site is the result of the university’s Web Content Management System (WCMS) project that kicked off last spring. The project is aimed at significantly improving Concordia’s digital communications efforts and presence, which includes moving hundreds of websites to the new system.
“We’ve been consulting with hundreds of university community members, including project champions from different academic and administrative units, to gain in-depth information about the digital communications needs of our internal and external audiences,” says Web Communications Director Lucy Niro.
“So including our external community in our feedback cycle before the redesigned site goes live is part of our efforts to make our consultation process as wide-reaching and inclusive as possible.”
When Concordia.ca is relaunched on August 5, it will run on a new WCMS called Adobe CQ. The balance of the university’s websites that are managed by administrative units, faculties, and departments will gradually be migrated to the system by May 2014.
The preview of Concordia.ca focuses on the home page that links to sample news story and events pages.
“A common need that also emerged during our consultation sessions last summer was that our information had to appeal to our diverse audiences in a more focused way,” Niro says. “As a result, we have created role-based navigation, which is prominent on our home page, that packages information for prospective students, current students, faculty and staff, alumni and friends, and parents.”
An intranet for faculty and staff is also set to launch on August 5 while role-based pages for current students will go live in the fall.
Chief Communications Officer Philippe Beauregard says the project has gained tremendous support from the many faculty and staff members who have attended awareness sessions, provided their requirements, and in some cases, become project champions who have helped advance the project through its development and design stages.
“I’ve heard from many community members who are actively engaged in this project and have a vested interest in seeing it succeed,” says Beauregard. “We could not have made it this far without their extensive involvement and strong sense of ownership. The preview pages reflect the outcome of our numerous requirement-gathering sessions so we’re excited to hear what people think.”
Visitors can provide their feedback via an online form. By clicking on the first banner on the home page, visitors can also view the before-and-after designs and read explanations of planned changes.
“Our goal was to not only outline the rationale behind certain decisions but also to highlight new features, such as the fact that the entire site will be responsive to mobile devices and we are complying with higher accessibility standards so that people with disabilities can use our website much more effectively,” says Niro.
Related links:
• Preview the homepage and provide your feedback
• “Web content management system project in full swing” — NOW, June 27, 2012