Just in time for the 2005-06 school year, the university web team launchedBYU-Hawaii’s new web site late Tuesday night. The upgrade was just in time to welcome students as they begin their first day of classes Wednesday, August 31.
“The timing is great,” said Anthony Perez, senior designer for UniversityAdvancement. "In a visual way, this site reflects who we are, where we arefrom and where we are going. This will give our new students a fresh new startin understanding our identity."
Part of understanding that identity is becoming familiar with the three-campusBYU system—BYU in Provo, BYU-Idaho and BYU-Hawaii. Perez stated, "Now morethan ever, the site shows that we’re a part of something bigger than ourselves,and that we’re linked with the mission of our sister institutions in unityand providing higher education."
Until 1998, the Web site was a student-run project. Then, the Department ofUniversity Advancement and the Chief Information Officer collaborated to establisha Web Team for university support.
Kevin Schlag, Director of Web & IT Projects, helped with the last major overhaulof the site, which took place about two years ago. He is pleased with the latestupgrade and commented about the necessity of creating fluidity.
"The big thing we’re doing with this rollout is pushing consistency.This version lays a good groundwork for other pages on the site to follow.Eventually,most pages will look similar, making it easier for people to get around it."
A major amount of behind-the-scenes work makes this new site more accessibleon a variety of computers and browsers. The big challenge was taking the vastamounts of information and making them web capable, which involves transferringfiles and breaking them down into smaller images – all while using HTML code.
Sam Nihipali, Web designer for the university, shared his aim in this revampingprocess."The old site seemed boxy and table oriented. Now it’s cleaner,more user-friendly and even more visibly attractive. Add that to the uniformity,and I feel like we accomplished what we set out to do—and more."
Nihipali, who took this position only three months earlier, had quite a largetask right out of the gate. "A professor who knew I was into Web design approachedme about an available position in which the immediate concern was to redesignthe Web site, and have it available by the time students arrived this fall,"he said.
The team extended themselves and accomplished their goal at midnight on Tuesday."Things really came together and it was an incredible team effort," saidSchlag, who had nothing but high remarks for the people responsible for thenew site.
"Tony, Sam, Rob, Scott Belnap, Mike Foley, and Albert Candari—theseguys really worked hard."
The web team welcomes feedback, and encourages any interested to make suggestionsat webteam@byuh.edu.