By Zach Taylor, University Relations Student Writer
The online home of The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, was recently honored by two different competitions; the HOW Interactive Design Awards and the Educational Digital Marketing Awards.
Each competition recognizes outstanding achievements in design and marketing for websites, digital content, electronic communications, mobile media, social media, and print media.
Launched in August 2013, the revamped website introduced a more modern design and layout, while also addressing a number of needs to promote a more user friendly experience.
“The new system has given us better control over the look and feel of the site,” said Chris Gilligan, University Relations Web Development Specialist. “It is now very easy to edit any single page or the entire site if need be; departments are also able to more effectively manage their content and respective web pages.”
A greater use of images and integration with social media and blogs allows for the University to publish new and relevant content and information quicker and easier.
One of the more interesting and useful features is the inclusion of responsive design. Based on what device the site is viewed on, the server reacts accordingly; providing different streamlined formats and visual presentations for desktop computers, cell phones, and tablets.
Completed through a collaborative effort by the offices of University Relations, Information Technology, and the Walker Teaching and Learning Center, the process saw more than 10,000 web pages redesigned and migrated to a server based content management system.
“This project was a wonderful, truly collaborative, experience in partnering between every department on campus, the web project team, the student team, and the steering committee, along with our web content management vendor, Omniupdate, to accomplish the new website on time and under budget,” said Richard Gambrell, Director of Strategic Systems.
Those leading the project included:
• Web Services Steering committee
- Tom Hoover, Chuck Cantrell, Karen Adsit, Richard Gambrell
• University Web Services – Reboot Project team
- Project Manager: Richard Gambrell
- Members: April Cox, Chris Gilligan, Charles Hart, Brian Rogers, Dan Chase, Michael Torres
• Student Web Assistants Team
- Coordinator: Michael Torres
- Members: Carson Coe, Jacob Coleman, Spencer White, Stuart French, David Tulis
• Unit Web Editors
- 300 + campus personnel from nearly every department
For more information on the awards, be sure to check out howdesign.com and educationalmarketingawards.com.
