New CoB website (2005)
Old CoB website (2000)
Beginning in the Summer of 2004, CoB's ILTC identified the need to redesign CoB's main website in order to be more standards-compliant and utilize the latest web technologies. Much thought and research went into designing the new website, considering issues such as:
Use latest technologies
In just 5 years from the time the CoB website was last redesigned, the use of the Internet continued to explode, creating the global realization that there was a need to standard web technologies and guidelines. In this redesign, we tried to understand what some of these standards were and implement them in our environement, including the following:
- XHTML for markup and structure
- CSS for presentation
- RSS and XML
- PHP for sever-side scripting
- MySQL database technology for dynamic content
- LDAP for secure internal authentication
Flexible design
We also wanted to design our site to be "future-proof" - that is, to design in such a way that new methods and design changes could easily be made from a global template. Therefore, the site was designed using a template-based method, as well as following the rule of DRY (Don't Repeat Yourself) by keeping replication of similar code and design to a minumum. So, by using this method of design and the latest technology, we can easily change colors, fonts, layout, etc. on the entire site with just a few minor changes to a only a small number of pages!
Consistency and quality in design and content
We felt that is was important to convey to our users that the quality of our web pages reflected the same level of quality of our organization (College) and the University. As probably the primary means by which persons would find information about our College, we wanted to make sure that our users could find information easily and quickly, while also creating and "experience" while they browse our website. Therefore, we have tried to consider how well our content is organized and laid out to eliminate redundant information.
We also wanted to implement a look and feel that remained consistent throughout the entire site, while utilizing design methods that retained the interest of the user.
Comply with current web, State and University standards
A primary consideration in this redesign was to make sure that our website met any web, State and University requirements or standards. Therefore, we have designed our web pages using recommendations of the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) and the Web Standards Project and tried to adhere to guidelines outlined by the State and University.
Accessiblity
The changing web environment has also presented additional accessiblity considerations which we wanted to implement into our new website. These considerations include:
- Cross-browser compatibility: With multiple web-browsers available on the market, as well as different versions for each browser, we wanted to make sure our website would display correctly on as many browsers as possible. We've designed our site to work on the latest versions of Internet Explorer, Netscape, Mozilla, and others as well and older versions of each. Even with older versions (that won't interpret CSS, for example), that won't display the presentation of the website, the content is not affected so that users can still get the information they need.
- Accessible to persons with disabilities: By designing using web standards, our website should be accessible to persons with disabilties. For instance, a visually impaired user can still easily navigate our site with a "speaking" browser.
- Accessible from different devices: With technology such as handheld devices, cell phones, wireless communications, etc., designing with web standards allows our website to be accessed from these devices, although many of these technologies are still too new to comply with existing web standards and it's difficult to develop for all devices.
In conclusion...
Although we've tried to create a website that meets the considerations mentioned above, we realize there will always be room for improvement. One thing is for sure - it won't be long until today's technology will soon be outdated, so we look forward to continually improving CoB's web environment and looking for ways that we can take advantage of new technologies as they become available.
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The CoB Web Team