Opportunity
The image above is a report from a site map audit of the pre-migration data on the CWU web server. This graphic gives the best explanation of the massive "hairball" of a website we had amassed over two decades.
Background
When I arrived at CWU in 2010, their website was not a comprehensive site as much as it was an ecosystem of one-off sites running static HTML pages for over 200 organizations. There was no cohesive brand or consistent look and feel across more than 100,000 pages—think digital rainforest. When we started there was no standard for navigation. Our bounce rate was over 80%, and search was a nightmare. The HTML template from six years prior had not taken root and had become a mess.
Above is part of the first phase of I.A. design– to create a cohesive order to the information architecture of the site.
Proposal
The administrators and stakeholders were hesitant to entertain a new solution. Prior my arrival, a committee had solicited contract bids and determined that the cost of an overhaul would be $1.6 million. I proposed a new roadmap. The plan would forgo contractors. Instead, we would build an in-house team across departments, hire minimally, and migrate only relevant/current data into an open source content management system—one ring to rule them all.
The Result
I designed the information architecture of the new site and formulated the methodology that we used to port content to the new system. I also designed the UI for the site and trained the web staff to build a common toolset that could be spun up for each department or organization on campus as the need arose. We created a modern site that is now the core digital platform for the entire enterprise. All for a cost that was less than 10% of the original estimate. This plan and our small team saved the University approximately $1.5 million.
