The next time you type in www.byuh.edu, you may see something very different—a redesigned Web site. For the past five months, BYU–Hawaii's Web Team has been hard at work redesigning the entire school Web site, which will soon be unveiled.
"We're getting really close," commented Devin Northrup, Public Relations Media Specialist, when asked when beta testing of the new Web site will start. Web Developer Jonathan Campbell echoed Northrup's sentiment, "Everything is pretty much in place; we just need to do some fine tuning and testing." Tentative dates of December and January have been set for the start of beta testing and the implementation of the new Web site, respectively.
This is not the first time that a redesign has been attempted. One of the reasons that this time has been successful has been timing. Web Architect Jinendra Jinadasa commented, "The nice thing is that all the talented people that we needed came together at the perfect time and we were able to make this project possible." Including Northrup, Campbell, and Jinadasa, the rest of the Web Team is made up of Director of University Communications Michael Johanson, Designer Randy Sasaki, and (now former) Web Developer Johnson Mak.
Also noteworthy were the webmasters that have been key in implementing such a dramatic overhaul. Although too many to name in one sitting, these behind-the-scenes webmasters alleviated the daunting task of page-by-page reviews and updates. The Web Team is quick to point out that without these webmasters, the work would’ve undoubtedly faltered.
User feedback played a large role in the redesign project. Campbell explains, "We did some surveys with the students, faculty, and employees that are here and got their feedback on the current website. Based on their feedback, we decided that the best way to go would be developing a new site." Campbell went on to confirm the great utility of the feedback they received. "A lot of the comments had to do with navigation, and that was our biggest motivation in doing this. They told us that the website was like a big list and it was hard to find anything."
Jinadasa echoed Campbell's comments about the value and role of the feedback received. "One thing I hope students will appreciate is that we took their feedback, and it was taken into consideration with what we wanted to see on the site."
With testing just around the corner, Campbell reflected on the level of work that was required to get to where they are now. "Getting the content from the different areas has been one of the most difficult parts of the project," said Campbell," We're trying to do a new structure, and it seems that every piece we touch seems to open up a new thing that we need to fix."
Jinadasa also added his comments. "One of the nice things about doing this project is that if this were an old system, we would probably have to wait another year for all the departments to switch each page. “But now," he continued, "it's just a matter of changing the theme."
Notably, according to an internal, daily-average-usage measurement by Omniture.com, the majority of visitors-by-region to the BYU–Hawaii Web site for the month of November 2009 were from the United States, at a whopping 93.4%. Trailing behind was Canada with .7%. The rest of the hits were divvied up into increments from various parts of the world. That being noted, the largest average daily hits for the BYU–Hawaii Web site during November 2009 were on Mondays; these trends showed most hits to be within the United States at the beginning of the week, and to have tapered off by the end of the week. Thus, this massive overhaul hopes to open up BYU–Hawaii’s Web site in a navigation-friendly way, culling more hits on average from various regions.
As the site comes forth in the coming months, Campbell emphasized that their work is not done yet. "Hopefully we can lay a foundation that will be easy to build on." Campbell continued, "We're hoping we can get some good feedback that we can incorporate into future revisions."
You can preview the new website here. (Note: it can only be viewed on campus)