It’s Not About You: Changing Culture Through a Web Redesign
With Robert Heyser & Samantha Windschitl
Background & Overview
- Staff: 11 people
- Identity: Multiple campus locations, but one district
- Decision-making process: Whoever screamed the loudest won (usually the chancellor)
- Leadership change: Old chancellor vs new chancellor
- District strife: Faculty vs District administration
Before & After (Home Page Before)
This is an image of the old website, which was designed on the classic 960 grid, with a fixed viewport and a very busy design with no clear actions to take.
Before & After (Home Page After)
This is the new website, with an emphasis on clean layout, clear actions, and responsive for any screen.
Before & After (Content After)
This is the new website, with an emphasis on clean layout, clear actions, and responsive for any screen. This is an example of an inner content page. The emphasis is clearly on content first, and ease of reading.
Redesign Process
- Content audit: Used to help create buy-in
- Buy-in: Chose key, well-respected stakeholders
- Audience: Narrowed down primary users to prospective students
- Usability testing: Tested site variations with in-person testing and online testing (with OptimalSort)
Results
- New rules: Base new site changes on usability results and analytics
- Follow-up testing: Continue testing to look for improvements
- Better department processes: Justify why something can/cannot be added to website, based on data
Results (Web Style Guide)
This is the web style guide, one of the results of the redesign process. It is a comprehensive list of standards for the website content, and is available to the public so that stakeholders understand out decisions about the appearance and content of our web pages. It is viewable at https://www.tccd.edu/about/communications-and-publications/web-style-guide/.
Milestones
- Vice Chancellor for Communications defending department decisions
- Increased interdepartmental collaboration across the District
- Positive feedback from frontline staff
Feedback Examples from Email (1 of 5)
From: Sarah
Sent: Tuesday, May 9, 2016 10:19 AM
To: Web.Communications@tccd.edu
Subject: TCC Website...
Today I received a call from a local high school counselor that assists students with transitioning to college. She was extremely impressed with the way the TCC website was redesigned and expressed her appreciation for the website. I just wanted to take a minute to share. Thanks for the work you do at TCC!
Sincerely,
Sarah, Information Center Assistant
Sent: Tuesday, May 9, 2016 10:19 AM
To: Web.Communications@tccd.edu
Subject: TCC Website...
Today I received a call from a local high school counselor that assists students with transitioning to college. She was extremely impressed with the way the TCC website was redesigned and expressed her appreciation for the website. I just wanted to take a minute to share. Thanks for the work you do at TCC!
Sincerely,
Sarah, Information Center Assistant
Feedback Examples from Email (2 of 5)
From: Carolyn
Sent: Thursday, June 9, 2016 8:11 AM
To: Web.Feedback
Subject:NEW WEBSITE
Our new website is AWESOME, OFF THE CHAIN! It seems to be more, more, more, user friendly! It will make our job so much easier when explaining to students how to use the website, or locate certain information. THANK YOU, the wait was worth it! Great JOB!
Carolyn
Administrative Associate, Business Services
Sent: Thursday, June 9, 2016 8:11 AM
To: Web.Feedback
Subject:NEW WEBSITE
Our new website is AWESOME, OFF THE CHAIN! It seems to be more, more, more, user friendly! It will make our job so much easier when explaining to students how to use the website, or locate certain information. THANK YOU, the wait was worth it! Great JOB!
Carolyn
Administrative Associate, Business Services
Feedback Examples from Email (3 of 5)
From: A student
Sent: June 8, 2016 12:13 PM
The new TCC website is Excellent! Great job to the team that worked on it! It's clean and easy to navigate!
Sent: June 8, 2016 12:13 PM
The new TCC website is Excellent! Great job to the team that worked on it! It's clean and easy to navigate!
Feedback Examples from Email (4 of 5)
From: Lloyd
Sent: 3/5/2017 4:32 AM
Amazing! The mobile website is so easy to navigate for a first time user. I had no confusion or felt lost while viewing. Great job thinking of your viewers while creating your website.
Sent: 3/5/2017 4:32 AM
Amazing! The mobile website is so easy to navigate for a first time user. I had no confusion or felt lost while viewing. Great job thinking of your viewers while creating your website.
Feedback Examples from Email (5 of 5)
From: Brenda.
Sent: Wednesday, June 22, 2016 4:32 PM
To: Web.Feedback
Subject:Website is more user friendly.
Just wanted to let you know that as a returning TCC student the website is a lot more user friendly and everything is more accessible. I didn't have to hunt for anything.
Thanks you.
Brenda.
Sent: Wednesday, June 22, 2016 4:32 PM
To: Web.Feedback
Subject:Website is more user friendly.
Just wanted to let you know that as a returning TCC student the website is a lot more user friendly and everything is more accessible. I didn't have to hunt for anything.
Thanks you.
Brenda.
Takeaways: Free
- Conduct usability testing in-person with students with card sorting
- Find tenured and well-respected faculty to spread the gospel
- Get feedback from frontline staff
- Reach out to other departments
Takeaways: With a Budget
- Conduct usability testing with software (ex: OptimalSort)
- Receive a content audit
- Review analytics with an analytics audit
- Throw a pizza party for testers (or use some sort of incentive)
Redesign Stats
Some fun redesign stats:
- 45,000 Man hours
- 11 employees
- 1,368 pages of content
- 502 Testers
- 130 mock-ups
- 500+ sticky notes, 14 dry erase markers, and 3 full sketchbooks
- Tested on 15 computers, 6 tablets, and 15+ phones
- Our old site consisted of 4.5 Gb of data, the redesign trimmed it down to 915 Mb
- During the redesign we consumed over 9,000 cups of coffee, 3,000 cans of soda, 600 cups of hot tea, and 100 cups of hot cocoa
- During the course of the redesign, 6 babies were born, and 3 weddings occured on our team