UCOP.edu continues to grow and improve
The new UCOP.edu website, now at about six months of age, is still growing and sprouting new features.
Some of these changes you may have noticed — like images in the rotating carousel at the top of the home page, or the new Organization page, which made its debut last Friday. Other changes may be less noticeable, but they all should be contributing to an improved user experience, said UCOP Web Editor Corey Mahoney.
“We are continually making upgrades to the site in response to feedback and to make the site more useful and more user-friendly,” Mahoney said. Many users, she added, find that the new site helps them understand the structure of UCOP at a glance. Accessibility fixes have also been made to facilitate use of the site for people with disabilities.
Mahoney and Web Editor Elizabeth Hull (pictured above) are working together to refine the site. They have trained representatives from nearly every UCOP department on Cascade, the content management system the site runs on. This allows departments to maintain and update their own content, although departments can continue to work with ITS on making updates.
Check out the site for some of these new features:
- On the new Organization page, which you can access from every page of the site (just click “Organization” on the top nav bar), you can explore the structure of OP, complete with divisions, departments and leadership photos. You can also still find links to divisions and departments at the footer of every page on the site.
- Search has also improved. As people use it, the system gets better at returning relevant results for frequently used terms. So if you’re struggling to find something, try the search box — you may find just what you need.
- The UC Policy Library has now been migrated to the new site design.
- As more people use the site, the “Most Popular” feature on the home page better reflects traffic patterns, providing links to pages that may be of interest to you.
If you are looking for something you can’t find or notice problems, please submit questions or suggestions via the “Share feedback” button on the home page, right under UC President Mark Yudof’s photo.
Mad props [in short, kudos] to both Corey and Elizabeth for all they have done to support the transition to the new content management system. Their patience and expertise got us over the finish line on this project, and we have some exceptional resources to show for it.
Great job Corey & Elizabeth!
I particularly like the “Navigating UCOP” link at the bottom of the home page! (http://www.ucop.edu/navigating-ucop/resources/index.html)