Author: jessee1981

In Part 1 of this Website Redesign Series, we took a look back at the old web design for the College of Natural Science at MSU , and where I was able to bring the design to during a redesign that began in 2016. In Part 2, we looked at some data points that analytics were showing us, and talked about how those would affect the redesign of the college homepage, and then sketched out what a proposed homepage redesign would look like. In Part 3 here, we will take a look at the technology we will be using to build the redesign.

Before we talk about technology though, let me explain a bit about my design process (something that is different for everyone). I like to start with a mockup, which is what you saw in Part 2, and from there, I like to start designing right in my browser. WOAH, WOAH, WOAH! WHAT? DESIGNING RIGHT IN THE BROWSER? BLASPHEMY! Or is it?

In Part 1 of this article series, we took a look back at the old web design for the College of Natural Science at MSU , and where I was able to bring the design to during a redesign that began in 2016, with an implementation that occurred in 2017. Part 1 concluded by indicating that our analytics were helping to drive the next iteration of the design that I’ve now embarked on…but how is it doing that?

Just to recap from Part 1:

• The college homepage has more visits than any other page on the site.
• Nearly 3/4 of the traffic seen every month is reported as a “New User”, as opposed to a “Returning User”.
• The largest demographic is in the age range of 18-24, followed closely by 25-34.

It’s that time again…time to redesign a website!

In my current role as the Digital Media Manager for the College of Natural Science at Michigan State University, which also encompasses front-end design/development for the college, the responsibility of a website redesign falls into my lap.

When I first took this role back at the end of 2016, my first official project was to develop a new design for the college website. The website at that time looked like this:

When people think of web accessibility, most tend to only think about those who are blind and require a screen reader in order to navigate a website. The question that often comes to mind for website owners is, “Is my website accessible via a screen reader?”.

There are many impairments however that can affect a person’s ability to navigate a website. Some of these include:

• Visual Impairments: low vision, color blindness
• Hearing: deaf, heard of hearing
• Physical: motor, speech
• Cognitive & Neurological: learning disabilities, memory impairment, seizure disorders

Meet James…