NJIT Website Relaunch FAQ
- Why mStoner?
- Why a new look-and-feel for the NJIT website?
- How did you pick the new design?
- What about a Content Management System (CMS)? What about Documentum?
- Why was SiteStudio chosen?
- When does my department get the new design? When does my department get into the CMS?
- What about my personal faculty page … or personal student page … or student club page?
- What about Highlander Pipeline (aka MyNJIT)?
- Why a new information architecture (IA)?
- What is information architecture?
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mStoner LLC is a well-regarded communications firm providing web design and development services, whose clients include the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Georgia. NJIT began discussions with them in the fall of 2005, and they were hired in the spring of 2006. See www.mstoner.com.
Why a new look-and-feel for the NJIT website?
The existing design of the NJIT website dates from 2002. A new look-and-feel is necessary to respond to increased user expectations and to provide a more flexible structure for different content (e.g., more scalable homepage headlines, more special features and other syndicated content, more images, etc.).
How did you pick the new design?
The design process went through several phases. In early August five possible design directions were proposed by mStoner, each consistent with the design strategy they proposed for NJIT. Widespread feedback was assembled from within NJIT (faculty, staff, administrators, students). Based on that feedback, NJIT and mStoner narrowed the designs to three of those five. Those three (with modifications as suggested by the feedback) were submitted to a university-wide survey. The survey result showed a clear choice among the designs by the NJIT students; that design was chosen as the basis around which to redesign the site.
What about a Content Management System (CMS)? What about Documentum?
Documentum was a CMS that was partially launched on campus several years ago. The product was not mature, and NJIT was an early adopter. mStoner recommended NJIT move away from the Documentum CMS. Accordingly, we have chosen SiteStudio as the new CMS. University Web Services has already migrated several web sites (e.g., NCE, Provost Office, Technology and Society Forum, etc.) into SiteStudio CMS.
NJIT had already purchased SiteStudio and was beginning to test it prior to mStoner's recommendation. SiteStudio is a Sungard Higher Education product, and NJIT is a beta development partner with SunGard. SunGard is the largest global software services company dedicated solely to the higher education market, and the future direction of the SiteStudio product will be driven by higher education customers. NJIT benefits from this and would be hard-pressed to find something comparable with another vendor. NJIT already uses other Sungard family products (like Highlander Pipeline), and we anticipate more a more tightly linked integration between SiteStudio and other Sungard products. Lastly, NJIT has at least four staff members experienced in SiteStudio; that collective expertise would be lost with a move to another CMS.
When does my department get the new design? When does my department get into the CMS?
mStoner will be creating design templates for the colleges and department in the late fall of 2006. These designs will be applied to the colleges and departments in a phased approach throughout the winter and spring of 2007. The exact schedule will depend on factors such as the number of existing department web pages and the amount of resources the department itself can apply to the migration (e.g., student workers).
What about my personal faculty page … or personal student page … or student club page?
At this point, it is not envisioned for the NJIT design to apply to the personal web pages of faculty, staff, students, or student clubs. Many of these pages are hosted on AFS system; at this point, University Web Services is not envisioned to be responsible for the content on the AFS system.
What about Highlander Pipeline (aka MyNJIT)?
Responsibility for Highlander Pipeline has remained with NJIT's University Information Systems (UIS). Content is often used on both the public website, as well as the private Highlander Pipeline. University Web Services will work in cooperation with UIS to best utilize Pipeline.
Why a new information architecture (IA)?
As part of mStoner’s comprehensive look at NJIT web pages and strategy, they identified a new IA that would better orient us to our audiences.
What is information architecture?
An explanation of IA would take more space than is available here. We recommend you read the Wikipedia entry on IA at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_architecture
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So ... the new NJIT homepage, Admissions site, and Financial Aid site were relaunched in late October ... what's going on now? (Nov 2006)
OK, those sites were launched with code (HTML, CSS, Javascript, PHP, etc.) that was about 95% "ready for prime time." Post-launch, mStoner has been tweaking and finalizing the code. By the end of Nov, that process should be done, and we can begin translating that finalized and "locked in" code into our SiteStudio CMS templates and start rolling out the new design to other parts of the NJIT website.
