Following in the footsteps of others institutions such as Cornell University and the Ohio State University, Duke University has been blogging its website redesign for almost three months as initially announced in this post published on September 27, 2005:
“Duke is redesigning its home page. The Office of News and Communications, which is leading the redesign, has established this blog to provide updates and a forum to discuss the the new site, which it hopes to launch by January 2006.”
The blog has been used to explain the development process, share design mock-ups and defend the design and technical approach retained for this project.
While the Office of News and Communication has decided to “moderat[e] this blog and […] edit comments to promote clarity, civility and relevance,” it definitely deserves some kudos for choosing a very open attitude towards feedback publishing negative comments as well – which has been applauded by a few blog readers such as Rob Goodlatte, a web designer studying at Duke:
“I find it very cool that you guys are letting us in on the re-design. Although I might not like the designs, I’m glad that ONC is exposing us to this process through this blog.”
Any website visitor is actually invited to give his/her opinion on the project by the following text link featured on the homepage “Send us your comments about our proposed new home page and “Duke Today” designs.”