They have been especially helpful in reworking the site navigation. White Whale has reviewed the organization of our site and made recommendations for revisions to the navigation (menus) as well as detailed recommendations for the content of top level pages.

Now we’re working with members of the working group to get feedback on the recommendations and settle on new menus where needed. It can be frustrating at times (do we call them “Majors & Minors” or “Departments & Programs”?), but the results are very satisfying. Of course, once we’ve created a beta version of the site we’ll invite the entire campus in to let us know how well we did!

“What differentiates Wheaton, in the end, is not the beauty of its buildings or the pedigrees of its faculty (although both of those are impressive)— it’s the people of the Wheaton community. Again and again, when people at Wheaton talked about their experiences, they came back to individual interactions with faculty, students, President Crutcher, etc. The Web site should do a better job of reflecting Wheaton’s personality.”

Our consultant team visits a lot of college campuses. After spending time at Wheaton, they told us that they were struck by the strong sense of community here, and the genuine, friendly and helpful people they met.

They also noted that the website wasn’t doing a good job of reflecting those characteristics.

One goal of this renovation is to better meet needs of prospective students, faculty, staff and donors. We believe that “capturing more of Wheaton” in our site, including the friendly and helpful nature of our community, will create a more effective and engaging site for “prospectives” AND a more useful tool for everyone who lives and works here right now.

What do you think?

• Navigation should not reflect the institution’s organizational chart.
  Navigation should present information in a way that people with no special knowledge of the existing organizational structure or office/initiative name can easily follow.
• Order links based on use.
  Navigation should list the most sought-after information first.  It is a convention to put contact information (staff lists, directions) last.
• Link only to pages within the section.
  With few exceptions, the navigation should link to internal pages only. Links that are part of the primary navigation should not take the user to another site or to a pdf (or other) downloadable file. If these external links are important, find ways to feature them in the page text rather than in the menus.

“Wheaton’s campus evokes something different, and meaningful, in everyone who sees it. A prospective student in Texas sees the New England autumn that she’s only read about. A future faculty member browsing from the Boston suburbs will see a welcome respite in a quiet town. Alumnae living in Miami will pause to click through at least one page of mid-winter dimple diving photos. The campus is, in other words, an unquestionably positive asset. And while it may be true that many liberal arts colleges have brick buildings and beautiful grounds, it remains the case that the beauty of Wheaton’s campus has the power to move just about anyone— even a group of Web designers who visit colleges for a living.”

Participants included:

• President Crutcher, and many other individual students, faculty and staff
• Zeph Stickney, the college archivist
• Communications Office
• Gail Berson and members of the Admission and SFS staffs, as well as recent college graduates
• Advancement
• Finance and Operations
• Library and Information Services
• Athletics
• Student Life
• Academic Advising, Office of the Registrar, Center for Global Education, Filene Center for Work and Learning, Marshall Multicultural Center
• Student Government Association
• Administrative Technology Committee
• Curriculum Evaluation Committee
• … and the Web Renovation Working Group, about which you’ll be  hearing more soon.

It was a very busy and successful few days. Between Admission campus visits, the Academic Festival, the Apple Orchard groundbreaking, and the President’s Commission our campus was literally buzzing with life.

Over the next many months we will be renovating the Wheaton web site, taking the ideas from last summer’s redesign of the home page (more news, more images of students doing real things, profiles of students, better navigation and search) and extending them to the entire web site. Graphic design is part of this. A content review is another part, both to improve the existing content and to identify areas that are underrepresented.  A thorough review of the navigation is a third part, something we haven’t done since 1998 when the site was much smaller. And, while we’re reviewing everything else, we plan some structural and technical improvements that will help departments manage pages and deliver services more effectively.

Correct me if I am wrong, but didn’t you just redesign the website?

Yes and no. We redesigned the Wheaton home page last summer, and we’ve heard compliments from many people. But, while the home page is important, it’s just one of the 15,000 pages on the Wheaton web site. In this comprehensive renovation of the whole Wheaton web site we want to extend the good thinking that went into the home page to all the pages, making the whole site easier to use, more engaging and more useful.

I think the new home page looks great, but why so little blue?

When we talk about a “redesign” we don’t just mean selecting the colors, photos and fonts–this is much more than a graphic redesign. We want to reconsider the navigation, the overall site organization, and the information and services that are available. Throw out any junk that has accumulated over the past fifteen years. Add new features when we think they would add value for students, prospective students and potential donors. Help college departments communicate with their constituents and deliver services efficiently. Let the world know about the great things that are going on at Wheaton.

Why would you put more resources into the web site? Why is the college doing this instead of making Wheaton more affordable?

We don’t think we can do one without the other. The trustees recently committed to adding another $2 million to financial aid for next year, while holding the comprehensive fee increase to the lowest level in many, many years. At the same time that the college is making these major efforts to be more affordable, we also need to make sure that we continue to attract a new classes of excellent students and an ongoing stream of gifts to support the work. The Wheaton web site, as the primary place prospective students and donors look for information about the college, is an essential part of that effort. And besides, most of the cost of the redesign is the energy and effort of the staff, faculty and students who will take the time to participate in the process, and the considerable effort of the web and communications staffs. Those funds we are using come from reallocation of existing budgets which have already been reduced as part of the college’s cost reduction initiative.