Clemson IE:
Website redesign
the challenge
The Department of Industrial Engineering has lacked a plan for the creation and governance of its content, and faced a number of web developer changes over the past five years. As a result, the site on a micro-level has issues ranging from broken links, outdated documents and information, but on a larger scale, the site's content flow and navigation was confusing, at times, random, and not very intuitive. The maintenance of content based on the existing structure also needed to be re-assessed in the new design.
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I was tasked with performing a content audit, developing a new site-map, and wireframing the site.
at a glance
Client: Department of Industrial Engineering
My role: Information Architect
Duration: 1 month
Tools:
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the approach
Content Audit
I wanted to capture as much of the existing content on the site as possible in order to analyze what content needed to be updated, where it was located, and what role the content played.
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I used a free XML sitemap generator tool to gather all existing content on the site. I explored the site by the main navigation tabs, documenting the flow and what content users encountered as they reached certain points. A student intern was tasked with locating broken links on the site.
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With the eventual implementation of the new website, I have recommended that a spreadsheet should be created to maintain an inventory of content on the website to ensure maintenance throughout the entire content lifecycle. This would include:
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Title used in site's navigation
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Title displayed on page/item
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Author
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Date last edited
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Content Owner(s)
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URL
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Parent Page
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Sitemap
Website Wireframe
Click to view the wireframe. The document file is too large for Wix; you will be re-directed to Google Drive, where you can download the PDF.
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constraints & solutions
Initially, one of the main challenges I faced in this project was the number of stakeholders, or perhaps perceived stakeholders, providing input and demands on the site re-design. A number of faculty had prioritized their own "fixes" to the site that were, on the larger scale of the project, not top-level priority (i.e. updating awards, a broken link on their personal profile, etc.). We also lacked a system for managing and receiving requests for the site. Faculty and students would email me, IE staff members, and the chair for website requests; none of us are actually working in the CSS to make those changes. We all acknowledged the importance of these changes being made (a broken link can change a whole user experience) and wanted our faculty and students to come forward with the issues they encountered. To resolve this communication and work-flow issue, I set up a meeting between the chair and the head of IT for the College of Computing, Engineering, and Applied Sciences, to see if we could implement a ticketing system that would go directly to our web developer.
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I've also been pushing for the chair and web developer to approve user testing on students and faculty in order to validate the sitemap and re-structuring of the site. I am currently in the process of defending the importance of validating these changes, as the web developer has approached the issue with a defense along the lines of, "No one is ever going to be happy with the site, so there's no point" and a chair who simply wants to see quick progress. As someone who really values user-centered design and data-driven decisions, I can't stress enough to the team how important it is to validate our design changes.
As I pass this project along to the next incoming graduate assistant, we've been discussing how to present usability testing, and a recommendation of conducting a card sort, or task-based think-aloud protocols. We would like to be approved for a small incentive, such as a $10 gift card for 8-12 participants.
the outcome
The recommendations are in the process of getting approval from the chair and the web developer is implementing the changes tab-by-tab. The time on completing this project was very pressured, as I wanted to complete my portions of it before graduating from Clemson and leaving it to the next graduate assistant.
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I found that I really love organizing content and documenting user flows; it's tedious, but provided a similar reward of completing a puzzle. I found surprising elements in the website, such as pages that existed only by clicking a tiny icon on the homepage, but were not available anywhere else on the site. Random content for room requests or travel forms were buried deep in the graduate student academic section, despite those links needing to be available to the entire department.
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Wireframing with Adobe XD was a great way to help the chair and web developer visualize my written recommendations, and provide more detail into the sitemap I provided them. It also allowed me to structure the next step in the project, which was to then go in and re-write, design, and update the writing, media, and additional content on the individual pages.
I also enjoyed working alongside the web developer, and understanding more about CSS, our management system, and the limitations of that the college, CECAS, puts on the departments in order to ensure uniformity and brand management. It was a great way for me, as well, to understand what goes into the maintenance of the content, and that was able to influence my design decisions (e.g. removing news article blocks that aren't manually updated through
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With the new structure coming into place, I'm excited to see the next level of changes being addressed.