WCU's consultants, mStoner, began their work with WCU in January with on-campus interviews with 16 groups from across the university. They met with the Chancellor, senior administrators, faculty, library, staff, students, alumni, members of the Offices of Admissions, Advancement and Financial Aid and others in order to determine the expectations and priorities for the university web site.
During the first phase, mStoner studied WCU's current site and developed a strategy for the redesign process and a preliminary information architecture for the main public-oriented pages. They reviewed WCU publications, photos and designs, and returned to campus to interview those people most involved with graphics and publications, including members of Public Relations, Publications, Admissions, the University Center, and others.
The following were the guiding criteria for the design:
- The navigation must be clearly visible and intuitive for the user
- The design must have a clean and integrated appearance
- The design must translate easily over into subsequent pages
- The design must encourage visitors to move deeper into the site
- The photos on the front page must tell a story so that visitors have a WCU experience
Following those guidelines, mStoner developed 10 designs, which were then narrowed down to a final four. Because WCU's primary audience is prospective students, the four designs were shared with 1800 freshmen orientation students, transfer students, band camp students, and a group of high school students in Chicago. Their responses to the survey questions about the designs narrowed the field to two final designs. WCU's Executive Council examined these designs and asked for minor revisions to the design that rated highest on over-all navigation and appeal. |
