The old site: “Let’s pick a timeless font for our website: Arial!”

Hey, Vox readers, did you know that the Voice—Vox‘s benevolent mother publication—has itself a website? Well, now, we’re willing to talk about it!

While we didn’t call former GUSA presidential candidate Spencer Walsh (MSB ’14), who said he could build a better GUSA website “like, tomorrow,” it didn’t take much longer than that. The modern look of the new website comes courtesy of Voice Photo Editor Miles Gavin Meng, the first staffer in years with web-design skills. (The share buttons at the bottom of Vox articles are also courtesy of him.)

All the same features are there. You can find Voice cover stories, news, leisure, sports, and a print edition archive, as well as color photos from the print edition. The new website is also mobile-friendly. So head over to the new georgetownvoice.com and check it out!

And, just for fun, check out the Voice‘s website from 2001. Actually, quite impressive.

Georgetown’s new website will launch tonight, ending an 18-month redesign process. The redesign is the first change made to the University’s website since 2002.

“We have worked with many members of the university community for more than a year to develop the structure, content and technical infrastructure to support the new site,” Julie Green Bataille, university vice president for communications, wrote in an email to students, faculty, and staff. “The new site provides navigational paths that reflect user behavior, multimedia content and ways for users to engage with Georgetown online more directly.”

The website features an interactive campus map, videos, and a footer bar customized for different audiences. However, pages specific to a school or department will not be affected by the transition, which will only apply to the website’s “top tier.”

University Information Services employees will begin the transition at 10 p.m.

Yesterday, Georgetown launched the beta version of its long-awaited, redesigned website.

As the University’s first redesign since 2002, the preview has a whole lot of new features, including navigation pathways for highly trafficked information and a footer bar that customizes links for students, faculty, alumni, and parents. It also includes videos, interactive campus maps, and a search function.

Earlier this semester, rumors on HoyaTalk suggested that the website would launch in late October or early November. According to University spokesperson Juile Green Bataille, the final product will “go live” on December 3.

“The structure, design and content of the new site reflect feedback from the Board of Directors, students, faculty, staff, alumni and prospective students and parents,” Bataille wrote in an email.

Love it or hate it? Let the University know at betasite@georgetown.edu.

The long-awaited University website redesign is making strides toward finishing soon. Yet, its launch date is still unknown.

Rumors on HoyaTalk suggest that the site is scheduled to launch in late October or early November.

In an email to Vox, Julie Green Bataille, associate vice president for communications, did not confirm those rumors, writing that there is no “specific launch date yet for the top tier site as [they] work through [UIS configuration] issues.”

Over the last few months, over 100 members of the Georgetown community—ranging from students and faculty to members of the board and prospective students—have tested the site to help shape its development.

Read the rest of this entry »

After considering four concepts for Georgetown.edu’s redesign, the Office of Communications has selected the fourth design, shown above, which their web developer Happy Cog offered as an alternative to three other designs which people said were “were not ‘cutting edge’ or ‘innovative’ enough.”

“The design offers us the flexibility to feature news and events happening on campus while still highlighting the elements that make Georgetown University unique,” Scott Anderson of the Office of Communications. He continued:

“Even though we have settled on a design concept, it does not mean work on the design is complete. We will be working with Happy Cog to polish the design over the next month. In particular, we will work with them on the design’s color scheme and the arrangement of things in the header. If there are other things you think we can improve, let us know by commenting on this post.”

We got a look at three potential designs for Georgetown’s website redesign last week, but after getting mixed feedback on those designs, the Communication Office’s Scott Anderson writes, they’ve asked their design firm to come up  with a fourth option.

“We’ve heard from a number of people that they felt the designs we posted earlier were not ‘cutting edge’ or ‘innovative’ enough,” he writes, “so we asked Happy Cog to come up with a more aggressive option.”

Above is that fourth option. It still includes the floating footer, but it features more content on the homepage, like events and additional University news stories, and places the seal and a sketch of Healy Hall at the bottom, too.

Commenters on the Georgetown Web Redesign blog are split:

Teresa Weber says, “Whoa, my head is spinning from looking at this website. I’m not sure where to look for the content that interests me most. Incredibly busy design with a squished feel. I agree with comments from the first round that Georgetown University looks best when all on one line. I would still recommend working from the ‘Clarity’ design from Round 1.”

Piet Niederhuasen writes, “This two column layout has the benefit of making the page more flexible — you can put more types of content higher on the page, such as current news/events (left) in addition to background content (right). It makes the page more useful in the long run.”

What do you think?

After collecting input from students and faculty about what they wanted out of a redesigned website and looking at boring wire frames, the Office of Communications, which is overseeing the redesign of Georgetown.edu, has finally received three full-on design concepts from its developer, Happy Cog.

The concepts, entitled “Wayfinder,” “Clarity,” and “Warmth,” respectively, each feature a floating footer that will “provide targeted content and links to specific audiences,” Communication’s Scott Anderson writes.

Students will see links like MyAccess and HoyaMail, for example, while faculty and staff will see links to “MyAccess, Access+, governance and others.”

“Please let us know what you like — and don’t like – about each design,” Anderson asks, “and let us know which one you prefer. What were your first impressions when you see the designs? Do the designs convey a sense of what Georgetown is all about?”

We’ll start with “Warmth,” the last concept: it’s ugly as sin. But Vox is a big fan of “Clarity.”

This image doesn’t make too much sense here. I just wanted to use it.

Both the Georgetown Voice website and Vox Populi are being redesigned this week. Vox will be out after about 9:00 this evening, but unless we fail whale like Homer, we should be up and running again when you wake up tomorrow morning!

Image by Ed Wheeler.

Or maybe we’re just waiting for some new PVC piping

This afternoon, we’ll be taking down GeorgetownVoice.com so we can launch a better, redesigned site later this week. (Vox Populi won’t be affected.)

As long as things go smoothly, we’ll be back with our revamped site and our first issue of the semester this Thursday!

The University’s Office of Communication has been working on a redesign of the University’s main website for a few months now, and they recently launched a blog to get feedback about georgetown.edu and issue updates about how the redesign is progressing.

According to the blog’s first post, the website redesign team has heard from over 80 members of the Georgetown community so far.  The main concerns they’ve expressed are that the new website needs to “deliver compelling content in a variety of formats; enhance functionality and use of multimedia; improve navigation, search functionality and user experience; and redesign mobile interfaces.”

The blog explains that this will be the first redesign in seven years, and the Office of Communications hopes to have the new website up in a year.