Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Soft launch of new Web site under way

North Carolina’s urban research university has a new digital presence. UNC Charlotte’s redesigned home page, which had its soft launch Tuesday, is the result of around 18 months of planning and efforts by units and departments across campus.

In introducing the site via an e-mail to the campus community, Chancellor Philip L. Dubois wrote that the new home page “reinforces UNC Charlotte’s logo, colors and brand message” and was designed with an “audience-centric navigation scheme that allows visitors to easily locate content.”

Joan Lorden, provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs, commented that the University’s Web site is the world’s window into UNC Charlotte. “Our site is newly organized to reveal the depth and breadth of what we do and make it easier for external audiences to find, appreciate and benefit from the work of our campus community.”

The Marketing Services Department in the Division for University Relations and Community Affairs will administer the site using Drupal, an open-source content management system (CMS).

“One fresh, clean, simple and uniform template with lots of flexibility – I will be able to use it across all of my pages. Web site management just got easier,” said David McIntosh, manager of Web services in the Information Technology Services Department and a member of the core team for the project.

Drupal will allow for quicker updates to Web sites than those built in “static HTML.”

The redesigned Web site includes a Stake Your Claim presence as well as consistent use of color and fonts that are central to the brand. The main image, designed to reflect the real characteristics of the University, will use UNC Charlotte students, faculty and staff. The images are part of the spotlight stories that will focus of core areas of the University – arts and culture, athletics, global reach, research and scholarship and academic life. A “share this” icon will enable site visitors to distribute content via their preferred social media outlet.


During the soft launch, users can see the new design at www.home.uncc.edu. After Aug. 10 the new design will be accessed at www.uncc.edu

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