Sarah Johnson Li presented on Rollins College's process of redesigning their website to be responsive. They formed a task force of various departments and students to gather feedback and guide the redesign process. Their goals were to make the site more mobile-friendly, easy to update, and focused on important content. Through design/development cycles and testing, they launched the new site, but continue improving it based on analytics and new technologies. The key lessons were prioritizing the audience, transparency during changes, accepting not all feedback, and ongoing work to meet evolving needs.
11. Why We Chose RWD
Mobile visits increased dramatically
Same content, same location
Easy updates, less work
Adapts to the environment
Promotes simple, effective content
12. Audience is most Important
What they said
• Hard to navigate
• Cluttered
• Old looking
What they did
• Common search terms
• Top pages from Google
Analytics
• Event Tracking
17. Our Task Force
13 Academic & Administrative Departments
Student Representatives
Invited more people for feedback
Create ambassadors
18. Task Force Itinerary
Dialogue, not monologues
Understanding value of Responsive Design
Reviewed our analytics and peer websites
Showed designs late
23. Design/Dev Tricks
Get over learning curves early
Emphasize Web != Print
Don’t sweat the small stuff
Keep it Simple
Communicate & Compromise
Shut the Front Door!
31. wow! as a prospective
student, the new website
is awesome.
Gorgeous!
The font choices and colors
are young and childish.
Fresh and bold look
Doesn't show the sophistication or breath of Rollins
it's MUCH more pleasant to the eye.
high school website
the layout has everything
one would need to find out
more information
I would like to go back
to the background
that displays the
architecture of the
campus
NO.
THIS SUCKS. Ilove
ourwebsiteasis.
Much better than the dull look we
currently have.
32.
33. You won’t please everyone
In general, people hate change
Address squeaky wheels
Back up your decisions
Change or adapt…within reason
45. Takeaways
Your audience is most important
Keep audience informed & involved
Team chemistry & communication
Can’t please everyone
Multiple solutions available
Never stop improving!
Founded 1885. #1 in the South. More than 2,600 undergraduate students; 575 grad; 2,557 FTE. Beautiful campus by the lake. Fox day tradition. Tars (nickname for sailors)
Rollins.edu/beta
Beta Today
6 “phases”
ID What’s Important
Mobile & desktop needs
Why am I doing this? Who is it for? What business goal will it help my client achieve? What need will it help my users address? Don’t just keep content first. Keep the why first.What real need will this feature meet? What’s the real reason? (Hint: ‘Because I want to’ or ‘I really like blue’ or ‘everyone’s on Facebook’ don’t count.)
Big implications of a “committee” in Higher Ed. Requires a hierarchy, by-laws. Ongoing. Task force is more informal with an endpoint.
Biweekly meetings, department heads volunteered individuals from their departments. Sent follow-up emails and called indviduals.
They became “ambassadors” who understood the what we were doing and why, so they could help our vocal groups understand the approach. Asked them what components would be in a successful website. We didn’t show the designs until much later, but they had a much better understanding of responsive and our reasons behind the redesign.
Too much second guessing, lack of understanding from readers
It’s not about location. It’s about priority. What is the most important content for your users? Because layout changes across contexts. There (probably) isn’t going to be a sidebar on your small-screen design.
Positive experience to learn about each other, applied job shadow. Learned a new process together, best team effort.
What are they REALLY saying? Didn’t like colors = don’t understand we are rebranding
Color toned down, added grey, campus photos and anchor added for personality. Still brainstorming on other elements.
A website is not a Ronco product! Many people abandon the website after a redesign. This is no longer an option.
