It was late 2008 when Dwight Fischer, the university’s assistant vice-president of information technology services, arrived on campus. The first directive he was given in his new role? Fix the web.
Considering that Dalhousie’s website contains tens of thousands of pages, that’s not a task for one man, or even one office. And so, the Dalhousie web project kicked off – a collaboration among Information Technology Services (ITS), Communications and Marketing (C&M) and the Registrar’s Office to rethink, rework and revitalize the university’s online presence.
Three years later, things are dramatically different.
Last week, the web team—a unit that brings together staff from across disciplines and that didn’t exist three years ago—hosted one of its town hall meetings that have become commonplace during the project. This one, though, was special: it recognized that much of the ‘project’ work is complete or well underway, and the team’s work now moves into standard operations.
Extreme Makeover: Dal.ca Edition
“I’m renovating a house right now, and it’s remarkable just how much it’s like rebuilding a website,” noted Graham MacDougall, associate director on the Dalhousie web team. “You could say that this whole operation was ‘Extreme Makeover: Dal.ca Edition.’”
Mr. MacDougall showed off what he referred to as “ghosts of websites past” to demonstrate just how far the dal.ca user experience has come.
“The old user experience was broken – simple as that. We had separate visual identities, no shared common goals, dated design and a content management system that no one—and I mean, no one—liked.”
So after approving a performance framework to define the scope of work and selecting a new web content system—Adobe CQ—the university set about transitioning the top levels of the dal.ca website into a new design and navigation. Those sites, and a new governance model to support it, rolled out last year.
In 2011, the web team has focused on developing web templates and features for academic units, which are now being rolled out to dozens of faculties and departments that are migrating their websites with web team support.
Profiling Dal's programs with dedicated microsites
And then there are the new program microsites. The web team is working with departments across the university to create one-stop shops for information about Dalhousie’s undergraduate programs. With sections including “What will I learn?” and the profile-rich “A day in the life,” the microsites provide a common navigation and structure to let programs share their unique, distinguishing qualities.
With 20 microsites now online, the team is working on completing 48 others, as well as starting similar microsites for graduate programs. And while many departments and faculties are migrating their own websites into the new look and feel, more than 200 must yet make the transition.
Still, the foundations are in place – in fact, the first 15 websites moved into Adobe CQ represent 51 of the top 100 most visited pages at the university. And with stronger supports, the ongoing work of the web is better resourced than ever, with more than 90 staff across the university trained to use CQ and many more taking part in web writing and content training.
Empowering web contributors
“We’re empowering people with better tools and training so that they can not only improve their website as they move it into CQ, but can better maintain them going forward,” explained James Covey, director of the web team.
“Three years ago, we had a problem with capacity – a lot of good intentions, but neither the model nor the people to get results from our website,” said Mr. Fischer, speaking to the crowd at the town hall. “Our capacity hasn’t changed, but we’re in a much better place – more people, doing more work, and getting great feedback on where this cross-departmental team has taken the web at Dalhousie.”
To connect with the web team, visit its website at http://dal.ca/webteam/