Website Redesign Project

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Website

New Website Project

Through a collaborative process, University Communications and Marketing (UCM), the Office of Research and Economic Development (ORED), and Rutgers Communications (R-Comm) have partnered together to streamline the development of three important websites representing Rutgers University. The sites covered in this project include:

Why the shared approach?

By working together, the stakeholders are leveraging shared resources for maximum impact. The project will share the time and cost related to the discovery and strategy.  The sites will have their own look and feel as well as unique functional features. However, by developing all three sites together, a coordinated and cohesive approach to design and user experience will be achieved.

What are the project goals?

The project stakeholders have identified these shared goals that reinforce the idea of shared development. The websites developed under this project will:

  • Showcase Rutgers’ unique strengths
  • Deliver personal relevance for important audiences
  • Unify Rutgers’ design and messaging
  • Provide an exceptional user experience
  • Allow prospective audiences to see themselves at Rutgers
  • Deliver accessible websites that are usable by those with disabilities on an upgraded technical platform

What is the project’s timeframe?

The project began in January 2019, with the goal of the first website launching at the beginning of 2020 with the next three sites launching sequentially through spring and summer of 2020.

How will the project affect me?

These new sites will bring the Rutgers brand to life in a modern web experience that’s optimized for all screen sizes. There will be a new look and feel introduced for the overarching Rutgers.edu site and a family of related designs that establish unique styles for the main websites for New Brunswick and ORED.

As an added benefit, units across the university will be offered the option to leverage the assets developed during this project to make it more efficient for them to design a state-of-the-art Rutgers-branded website in the future.

To clarify, this project is not creating a design that must be adopted by units and only impacts the three websites listed above. However, the project will create many website assets/design approaches that may be used by groups throughout the Rutgers community, if they choose to do so.

The project includes the development of a component library that will house all the styled elements designed for the websites included in the project. This library will store these components in such a way that they can be combined like LEGO building blocks to create webpages of all types. This approach will make it easier for the design and functionalities developed during this project to be leveraged by other departments if they wish to employ this approach for their sites in the future. While it will not eliminate all costs associated with site development, use of the library may provide time and cost savings for units that choose to adopt the shared assets.

Contact Us

For questions or feedback, or if you are interested in learning how your unit may be able to benefit from this website project, please contact us.