If you’ve ever tried to use the University of Toronto’s website, you know that searching for information can often be like looking for a needle in a proverbial haystack. Narrowing your search to what you need can be confusing and exhausting.
Students, faculty, and curious web surfers everywhere will be happy to know there is a team working long, hard hours to revamp utoronto.ca.
The website, a preview version which is viewable from campus computers or within the U of T network, is characterized by bright colours, an airy design, and an exceptionally user-friendly structure. Equipped with a new Google-powered search engine that gives you the information you actually want, designers hope students will be able to find everything they need without giving up and calling the front desk. Although the images on the site are not final, they give you a clear idea of what’s to come.
“[The current site is] especially hard to navigate and find information,” opined second-year linguistics major Mera Nirmalan-Nathan. “It needs a more refined search engine that doesn’t just pile everything in front of you that has the keyword you type in. Trying to find administrative information in first year was like trying to find a book in Robarts without using the catalogue.”
With the appropriate slogan of “Find, Get, Do,” a team of administration, students, staff, and departments, together with ad agency JWT Sauce, created a site that was geared toward U of T’s future student body.
Information is readily available and more obvious-athletic information is in the Athletics section of the site, and the same quick-to-find scheme goes on with Student Services, Administration, Academics, and the like making it that much easier to navigate and find what you are looking for.
“The site is more student-oriented and easier to use, and more in touch with the university’s new visual identity,” said Vicki Vokas of the Web Service Project Office, one of the head administrative directors of the project.
After surveying 6,400 students and getting input from faculty and staff the team started the architecture of the new site with students in mind. Using visibility testing, where students were observed navigating a test site, the designers were able to keep real usage patterns in mind for the redesign.
“[This is] keeping the university the way [students] think of the university, as well as keeping the site from being stale and dated,” said Marden Paul, director of strategic computing, who headed the project with Vokas. “A specific emphasis on content design, accessibility, and communication, allowed us to centre on particular issues and what is important, making sure everything is new with a lively dynamic.”
Vokas and Paul said they wanted to include all three campuses, to keep an outline of seasonality within the campus scope, and hope to add new and innovative communication techniques like podcasting, opportunities for students to experiment with images, and animation.
“The 2 a.m. pizza and coffee breaks were well worth it. The whole process is thrilling,” said Vokas. The duo is telling students to watch for it in upcoming weeks.
