The Next Generation Website Project (NGWP) recognizes its two year anniversary this spring. As the COVID-19 pandemic began, the NGWP adapted to online interactions for the assessment of the current University site; technical audit; listening tours; strategic direction; information architecture workshops; wireframe development; design; environmental set-up installation and configuration; content development; and now technical review.
February and March
Throughout February and March, ITS executed the quality assurance (QA) – a technical review of the future website components and their functionality. The NGWP team seeks to create a website that meets the University’s technical standards and does not require high level technical expertise to build and maintain. After performing a deep technical review, ITS determined that more work would be needed to deliver a theme that meets reasonable expectations for ease of use and maintainability. To complete the project and meet these goals, the development schedule will be extended so that theme development can be completed in-house by ITS. This change impacts the launch date of the primary uncg.edu site.
Content teams have been completing their drafts and turning over entire sections of the primary site for editorial review. The contracted editorial team is reviewing drafted pages and will continue their work into April due to the timeline shift. The editorial review schedule is as such:
- Undergraduate program pages
- Graduate program pages
- Campus Life & Resources
- Academics & Support
- Admissions
- About Us
- Research
- Gateways
Once ITS completes the development phase, training modules will be developed for content team members and website technical leads. This training will assist those individuals to become familiar with the new components and begin content migration to the new UNCG.edu in August. Migration is anticipated to take a few months to complete.
The NGWP leadership team seeks to recognize the continuous commitment of the staff and faculty members, from across the University, who continue to lend their knowledge and talent to the project as it moves toward launch.
Keep up with the project by visiting http://go.uncg.edu/ngwp.
