collegewebeditor.com

Ball State University re-launches its website

Yes, that’s right.

BSU hasn’t just redesigned its website: the university is relaunching it tomorrow (October 1st) as Nancy Prater, University Web Coordinator, told me in an email a couple of weeks ago.

The project including the redesign, a revamped information architecture and a CMS implementation took 18 months as explained in “Extreme Makeover: Web Site Edition:”

“If we only wanted to change how things look, we could have been done 15 months ago,” says Nancy Prater, university Web coordinator. “Instead, we have ‘re-architected’ the site, so now it has a fully planned information architecture or behind-the-scenes structure for building out all of the site. That’s why we’re calling this a ‘re-launch’ of the Web site rather a than simply a re-design, because it’s a lot more extensive than just looking different.”

The milestones of this project were chronicled on a blog launched in August 2006 and used to share updates and gather feedback.

BEFORE

AFTER

So, what do you think about this new homepage?