From the rooftop to the UW home page!
In collaboration with the Department of Atmospheric Sciences, we are now providing local weather data on the UW home page. Two standout features: The temperature is taken directly from the Atmospheric Sciences building rooftop, and an in-depth Seattle/UW forecast is available by clicking the weather tab (top right, just above the search box). A big thanks to Harry Edmon and his team at Atmospheric Sciences for helping us provide this new and useful service.
Under the hood: We have added a script that "turns off" the weather feature in the unlikely event the data feed from Atmospheric Sciences goes down. That ensures that old, outdated weather data doesn't become "resident" on the home page if fresh data is unavailable. So if you ever go to the home page and notice the weather's missing, that likely means the feed is down. In case we don't notice right away, feel free to fire off a message to uweb@uw.edu. Thanks!
Header/Footer Wizard 1.1 (updated)
If you are using the code, we're pleased to announce our first set of updates: updates that are mostly content-oriented, but a few XHTML and CSS validation fixes as well. To take advantage of these fixes (if you haven’t already fixed them yourself), you can do one of two things:
1) Fix the code yourself by carefully reading through the changelog below.
OR
2) Log back in to the wizard, repeat the steps and get new copy-paste code: https://depts.washington.edu/uweb/tmplgen/
====== HEADER & FOOTER WIZARD ======
========== 1.1 CHANGELOG ==========
CONTENT fixes:
- changed "Employment" to "Jobs" (consistent with our homepage/sitewide footer nav)
- linked “© 2010 University of Washington” to www.washington.edu and “Seattle, Washington” to www.seattle.gov in the footer (consistent with our homepage/sitewide footer nav)
- added a "Libraries" link to the top nav bar (consistent with our homepage/sitewide top nav)
- added a period "." to the end of "Discover what’s next. It's the Washington Way" (now reads “Discover what's next. It's the Washington Way.”)
CSS fixes:
- in footer.css: added
#footerLogoLink {
display: block;
width: 74px;
height: 74px;
} and changed the markup to match, “wlogoLink” is now “footerLogoLink” (this makes sure we aren't duplicating an ID inside of header.css)
- in header.css: removed “color: transparent” from .formbutton (was invalid css)
XHTML fix:
- replaced the content wrapper <span>…</span> with <div>…</div> (this fixes an XHTML validation problem that should have been fixed a long time ago. Sorry J)
==================
Oh, and if anyone is actively using the include version, please let us know; our stats tell us that a few of you are, but we’d like to verify.
MyUW. Can you find it now?
In an earlier post (before launch) we mentioned that the popular MyUW link was in three places and pointed them out. But some site visitors said they still couldn't find it and asked for it to be in the audience-based "dropdown" menus for students and faculty/staff. OK, we added it. Can you find it now? For good measure, we also added a link to Alpine!
More good news -- we hope. We had a number of requests to make the department list easier to find, including repeat suggestions that we add it to the Discover the UW "dropdown" menu. (Sounds like those dropdowns are becoming quite the popular way to navigate the site!) Well.. it's there now. Better?
And have you noticed? The order of the "top" stories has been changing throughout the week. You'll be seeing a lot more of that in the days ahead, so be sure to check back!
What people are saying
The new UW home page has been live for two full weekdays now, and about 200 of you have taken the time to share your thoughts. Some of you love it, some hate it. We've read every word you've shared -- or YELLED. And we have already made some adjustments in response. More on that in an upcoming post. But first... we thought we'd share a few choice quotes:
↑ I love our new homepage. Clean, dynamic, something we can all be proud of.
↓ The new website is pretty ugly. ... Don't try to be so modern and fancy.
↑ I really like the new look. It is unlike other websites I've seen so it's great to have UW out in the forefront.
↓ It sucks BIG TIME!
↑ Really a big improvement on the previous setup.
↓ Did you have to take a nice, mostly well-organized front page and turn it into another ugly obnoxious "LOOK AT ME!" trendy eyesore?
↑ I really like it. Its very easy to use and navigate.
↓ the ipod looking story links should be accessed by rolling across them not with the slide bar. anyone older than dirt won't be able to figure them out and will think the page doesn't work.
↑ Been a long time coming, but this is state of the art, beautiful, and functional
↓ Too busy. Too many "list" formats. Too many columns.
↑ It is a joy to navigate through, very intuitive, love the combination of purple with relief of grey text on white background - very easy on the eyes. I was able to find everything I looked for. Bottomline - beautiful and works great!
Welcome to the new home page!
We know you'll want to explore the site to see what's new, but here's a little cheatsheet to guide you through some of the changes.
New pages include:
- Faculty & Staff landing page
- Educational Excellence
- News Central
- Spotlight on Global Citizens
- Spotlight on Healthy Lives
- Spotlight on Innovation
- Spotlight on Sustainability
Pages that have been reinvented and redesigned include:
- Academics & Research
- Admissions start page for all three campuses
- Business & Industry
- Discover the UW
- Historic Overview
- Information & Visitors Center
- Leadership landing page
- Vision & Values
More pages in the old design (like this page) will be migrated to the new look throughout the year. Keep checking back for more posts on this project as it moves forward!
Tips for MyUW users and other insight
Wondering where the My UW link will be on the new home page? Check this out!
The good news is you'll be able to find it in three places. At the very top of the page in what we call "the utility nav" (above) , at the bottom of the page in the "footer" and in a new section on the right side of the page under a tab called "Most Popular" (right).
More about the "Most Popular" section: That's where we'll include links to some frequently visited pages on the vast UW Web. Links in that section will change from time to time as Web traffic patterns change.
There's another category in that part of the page called "Check it Out" where you'll find links to UW sites and pages that we think you might find interesting. It's one way to help you find information you otherwise might not know about. Our way of helping you discover and explore the UW! We'll be interested in hearing your feedback on that section after the new home page launches!
New home page coming soon
The UW soon will launch a redesigned home page that features stronger audience-focused navigation, new interactivity, social networking options and many more opportunities to explore what the university has to offer. We're in the final stages of dotting i's and crossing t's. We'll announce the launch date here and on the current home page, so check back often!
The bold design and more intuitive navigation of the new home page also will be incorporated in a number of top-level administrative and informational pages, as well as five new "portals" that showcase the UW's prominence in the areas of Education, Sustainability, Innovation, Healthy Lives and Global Citizens. Plans call for migrating more top-level pages to the new content-rich design later this year.
Some of the changes are detailed in previous posts on this blog. More inside info will be posted this week, so be sure to check back!
More about top navigation
You'll want to click on this image (twice) to see two basic navigation scenarios. The "thin strip" at the top has links to some of our most popular destinations and/or features:
UW Home | Directories | Calendar | Maps | My UW
This is also where you'll find links to Bothell and Tacoma -- and to the on-page search! Plus, we've added live weather.
The audience-based navigation (Current Students | Future Students etc.) is described in the preceding post. Check it out here >
Take a closer look
Sample of top-of-page navigation
We are introducing new audience-focused navigation toward the top of the page, calling out some of the most used and/or popular links. This navigation will initially appear on just the UW's top-level pages that are part of Phase 1 of the redesign project. (That includes the home page and other top-level administrative and information pages. More pages will be added later.) This is a work in progress, and links will be updated or changed over time to reflect user preference and need. (Click the image twice for a larger view.)
Spotlight on UW accomplishments
In addition to the redesigned home page, we will be introducing five new "portal" pages that cast a spotlight on Education, Sustainability, Healthy Lives, Global Citizens and Innovation. They will showcase ways in which the UW excels in these areas. The content will refresh over time, and UW communicators across campus will help select what is showcased. Watch for the new portals when the new site launches! They will open a whole new window to the UW worlds of Education, Sustainability, Healthy Lives, Global Citizens and Innovation.
Our mission
We manage the UW home page and other top-level pages and sites, created the UW Alert banner and interactive campus map, and made the design for the UW's new iPhone app. Next up? A Web redesign. Follow our progress on this blog!
The Web Team includes:
• Gina Hills - Manager
• Chris Heiland - Developer
• Jeff Hendrickson - Editor
• Kilian Frey - Designer
• Tim Chang-Miller - Producer
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