This post is purely a self promotion on the web team’s behalf.
First of all, Leslie and I played on the staff intramural basketball team here at Richland for that past few months. Last Thursday we won the championship. Not bad for kicking some college kids’ butts while completely re-structuring the entire site 
Second, we’ve had a great past few weeks since the site launch of the new site and we’re starting to see some traction in the world of higher education web design. On launch day we saw our visitors rise by almost 7,000 uniques. That means that we had 7,000 people come to the Richland College web site who have never seen it before.
Our goal entering this process was simple: Be the Benchmark. We’re not there yet, but we’re inching closer every day.
We have also been promoted on the website eduStyle.net (here) which is a website for ‘inspiration for campus web designers’. If you can spare a couple minutes, we would appreciate it if you would sign up and vote for us. After you’re signed in, you’ll see a link that says ‘Add Your Vote’ next to the thumbnail.
Finally, we were picked up by another site called eduCheckup that actually does video reviews on college websites. What’s cool about this is that it’s a completely unbiased third-party reviewer who works for a college’s web/marketing dept. He seems to be fairly well known amongst the higher education web designers and really knows what he’s doing.
When you watch the video below, it’s best to view it fullscreen by clicking the four outward pointing arrows in the bottom right.
That’s about it for now. Be on the lookout for new wild and crazy things that will be coming out in the future.
P.S. Anyone want to go do some karate in my garage now?
P.S.S. If you see Leslie, please ask her if she wants a cookie. That is all.
Lisa 12:16 pm on December 9, 2008 Permalink
Congrats on the kudos! I know it validates to have colleagues express their positive critiques of your work.
As for me, I’ve enjoyed the new site!! And, have had no problems navigating where I need to go.
whit 1:06 pm on December 9, 2008 Permalink
98 for information! AWESOME! Exactly what we wanted. I would consider his remark about the arrow icons on the t-ducks menu. It does imply/look like a pull down. Also, making the icons larger on the boxes next to Apply is probably an easy fix. And, I would consider ditching that arrow on Apply Now — it’s been causing issues ever since P. Cab. Would be cool to re-send it to him with a thank you letter…
I think the comment about “static diversity” on the interior pages is worthless, though. He has no idea how hard we have to strive for branding, and you have to start somewhere. Once there are “rules” established, then we can break them, but not before. If he could only see where we came from! And on the faculty profiles, I don’t think he realized he was on a discipline page. Otherwise, very nice review. As you’ve been told, stellar job. Keep up the meticulous and research-based work. The whole college appreciates your work.
suzy 1:08 pm on December 9, 2008 Permalink
great job…I’m proud to know ya!!!!
Randy 2:20 pm on December 9, 2008 Permalink
@Lisa Thank you! We’re glad you’re able to find your way around the site
@whit Ya, the information score was good to see
As far as the whole middle section, that is in line to be re-done. What’s up with the arrow issue though? As far as any criticisms he had, for the most part, they’re quite nit-picky, that it really shows how far we’ve come.
@suzy Thanks Suz!!