Patrick Ackerman - Web Site Producer/Project Manager
home
portfolio/case studies process resumé contact
 project name  
   
Rowan University Web site
(Home and Main Section pages)
http://www.rowan.edu

 

    
 mission
   
The main entrance of the Rowan University Web site services faculty and staff, prospective students, current students, alumni, parents and visitors, each with their own goals and expectations of how the University’s site should help them. The University felt that their original site suffers from an unprofessional aesthetic and poorly designed structure, limiting what they could offer to site visitors.t They wanted a redesigned site that would provide dynamic and valuable information in a consistent and easy to navigate architecture, It should provide the opportunity to deliver marketing statements targeted to specific audiences, placed in key positions throughout the main sections of the site. The redesigned site should download quickly on standard 33.6 modem connections.
 solution - design & production
 


  • Assessed the various information needs and resources through surveys and discussions with all target audiences
  • Designed a navigation system that provides each audience direct access to resources they will likely need
  • Developed technical specifications for systems that handle various types of form submissions and oversaw their implementation by programmers
  • Created an area on each page where images, depicting social and educational opportunities, are placed in conjunction with directed marketing statements
  • Established a consistent visual interface throughout the main areas of the University Web site carefully designing the aesthetic elements and page compositions to allow for the smallest possible file size
 results
 


Based on server stats and surveys, visitors to the site are achieving their information goals as much as 50% faster as in the previous Web site. Use of the new areas of content, specifically the Rowan student and visitor areas, have surpassed the University’s expectations, representing over 30,000 page views per month. The University’s ability to communicate important information using the web site has also proved highly effective (example: over 55% of the users visiting the home page during periods of inclement weather go directly to the Emergency closing information).