AU began its contract with the strategic design organization HUGE this month to redesign AU's main Web site and the five undergraduate schools' Web sites, according to David Taylor, presidential chief of staff.
The university anticipates the revamped Web sites will be ready for the fall 2008 semester, Taylor said.
"It is a massive undertaking," he said. "It will play out over a series of months, and right now, as we speak, we're building the foundation to get all the work done."
Four teams consisting of AU faculty, staff and students will help HUGE in the redesign process. One group will focus on technology; another on the redesign; another on special features and marketing; and another on content, publishing and guidelines, Taylor said.
The special features and marketing group will help develop three to four special features that will be included in the revamp, according to Bernie Schulz, the special assistant to the vice president of campus life and head of the special features group.
One special feature the group hopes to incorporate is a virtual campus tour, which will likely be Adobe Flash-based. Another special feature that might be incorporated is an integrated master calendar for the university, Schulz said.
The virtual tour would be helpful for prospective AU students, said Rich Karpusiewicz, a senior in the School of International Service.
"I think it would be very good because not everyone can afford to come down here when they show the place off," he said.
The groups will also work to make the Web content available in alternative formats and might utilize screen readers, which scan text and convert the text to spoken words, to help users who are visually impaired, Schulz said.
"We have staff members with expertise in disability compliance working to make sure that the AU Web site is accessible for visitors with disabilities," he said.
HUGE will work with the five schools to coordinate the look and function of the Web sites and will show proposed designs some months from now, Taylor said.
AU selected HUGE to help with the "discovery, research and analysis phase" of AU's Web redesign last spring and recommended the university embrace the "Web 2.0" concept, in which AU's Web site would include communication between users and not just one-way communication, Taylor said.
"[HUGE is] very much user-focused and customer-focused," he said. "We were very impressed with their commitment to have a good user experience."
There should be more direct information about student organizations on the Web site, said Maggie Herman, a freshman in the School of Public Affairs.
"I feel like it would make the Web site much more personal and directed toward the current students rather than the prospective students," she said.
AU's redesigned Web site should include more representation of Greek life on-campus, said Sasha Bloch, a sophomore in SIS.
"On the Web site, Greek life is not well-represented," she said. "I would like to see pictures of Greeks in action because they are a vital part of the active campus community."
HUGE has also worked on projects for clients such as JetBlue, IKEA and Style.com, according to the company's Web site.
