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On February 4, after many months of planning, designing, and tweaking, the new UO home page made its debut.
The major redesign of the UO site began last summer, shortly after the Computing Center hired web specialist Dave Ragsdale. Ragsdale, formerly the multimedia-Internet development specialist at the University of Nevada in Reno, set to work creating design proposals, and a special oversight committee was formed to guide the redesign process. Committee members included Tom Hager and John Crosiar (Office of Communications), Joanne Hugi and Joe St Sauver (Computing Center), George Beltran (University Publications), Martha Pitts (Admissions), Robert Felsing (Knight Library), and Computer and Information Science student Chun-Chih Chen.
The committee reviewed a total of 16 designs and narrowed their choices to three favorites, reaching a final consensus in November. Ragsdale spent another month paring down file sizes and adjusting links, and the design was unveiled to President Frohnmayer and the UO Communications Council in January.
The result of this concerted effort is a makeover that retains many of the popular features of the old site, such as the weather link and photograph of the day, while introducing new useful features like a prominent link to WebMail and a link to personal pages.
Other notable features include the "UO News and Facts" section (a comprehensive resource for basic information as well as the latest news and events on campus), a new electronic campus directory (see "New Electronic Student/Staff Directory Coming Soon" on page 20), and the "Featured Web Page," which showcases a different campus site each day.
To ensure consistency throughout the site, second- and third-level pages employ the same green and gold colors and elements of the UO seal as the home page. The new design has been well received overall, and comments poured in from both on- and off-campus immediately following its debut. "I like it!" "Very nice new page!" were typical responses. Some also expressed particular appreciation for the new WebMail link and the prominent display of the UO's directory number at the foot of the page.