Content Guide, Check-in Reminder, Usability

A PRESENT FROM WHITE WHALE
During the WorkSessions, we have heard questions like “What should go in a sidebar?” and “Is this something that should go in the Carousel?” To help us answer these questions, White Whale has provided us with a content guide, and they have turned it into a VISUAL.  Attached is a content [...]

White Whale Presentation on Friday, Nov. 6th

Designs for Academic Departments and Faculty Profiles

Per Mike’s last post on the “glass wall” phase of feedback, we are offering links to design mock-ups for three academic departments and a faculty profile. A few notes on these:
These designs are not supposed to mirror actual content or the specific links and menu items that a department might use. White Whale did model [...]

The Glass Window of Feedback

We’re entering a frantic phase of the web makeover process where each week we will be receiving sets of designs from our design partner, and quickly reviewing them, making suggestions, and ultimately approving them. Throughout this project, we have tried to be as inclusive and transparent as we possibly can, in the belief that by [...]

Designing the next levels: Section Homepages

The following is White Whale’s live presentation during their visit, where they share the next round of designs for the Middlebury Web site.

Below are two moc-ups for Section Homepages that were presented in the video:
Section Page: Admissions
Section Page: Arts
Over the next few weeks, we will be sharing designs from White Whale that bring us further [...]

Homepage Usability

Jakob Nielsen, a key figure in web usability has 113 guidelines for homepage usability. I was asked to use the guidelines to assess our new homepage design. The following is a list of what I considered to be the most important guidelines along with whether or not the new design follows them, and some occasional [...]

Customizing and Personalizing the New Site

One aspect of the web makeover that we’ve heard is quite desired – and that we’ve always included in our plan – is the creation of personalized and customized pages. Over the last few months, it’s become clear that these terms, along with others like portals, homepages, profiles, and the like, can mean differing things [...]

Launch of the New Monterey Institiute for International Studies Web Site

The new MIIS web site is nearing readiness for its official launch. After consultation with the web team at Middlebury, we are planning the formal launch of the new MIIS website for September 15.
Dozens of people have worked very hard all summer to develop a framework  for the site that reflects our mission and vision [...]

Moving Forward with the Design Process

We’ve let White Whale Web Services know that they should proceed refining and improving upon the initial design concept that they presented to us earlier this month. While we share many of the concerns that were expressed via the blog, at the presentation, and in private conversations, we believe that the fundamental concept, once improved [...]

Unveiled homepage mockups for middlebury.edu

White Whale has shared with us mockup pages of the first round home page design, a small number of examples are displayed here.  Within this explanation, there are many links that demonstrate how this design can be used, and we invite you to explore them all and offer feedback.  Please feel free to share your [...]