Campus Web Update

The following update was sent to campus by email this week.

The launch of the new UM-Flint website has been successful thanks to the high level of team work and collaboration across all university units. Thank you for the important role your department has played and will continue to play in keeping the university website vibrant and useful.

Work continues to improve and refine the website. We are pleased to announce a few changes you will see in the coming weeks:

1)      New Hero Images – When the website launched, each department’s homepage featured a general photo of campus as the “hero image.” We know this uniformity is not ideal, however, we have to carefully choose the photos selected for this area to ensure that they will be appropriately responsive on mobile devices. Instead of the one image, we are now offering more than 20 hero images that departments can choose to use on their department homepages. In the coming months, we hope to work with departments on an individual basis to identify custom hero images.

2)      Updated billboards on the university homepage – On the homepage, the three featured “billboards” at the top have been reformatted for better readability and  responsiveness.

3)      RSS Feeds – It is now easier to add RSS feeds of such items as news articles from the news page to websites. All Drupal users have access to a new tool that will make this process easier.

4)      Based on the feedback of users, the web team is hard at work on introducing a revamped “My UM-Flint” that will allow logged in users to customize their own lists of “quick links.”  We are hoping to introduce that change in early December.

Also, please note that every university department has a Google Analytics profile. Google Analytics is a valuable tool that can provide you with information about a number of aspects of your department website. Please email [email protected] for access to your department’s profile, including the Google account information for the person who should have access.

Finally, although the site has launched, it is more important than ever to review your website content on a regular basis to ensure that outdated information is removed, and that the current information your users need is readily available to them. In the weeks and months ahead, University Relations will meet with individual departments on a customized content strategy for your unit. In the meantime, the University Relations Blog will continue to feature ideas and best practices for how your unit can implement key content strategy concepts right now.

Thank you for your ongoing support of the university website.

Scott Arnst, Director, Information Technology Services
Jennifer Hogan, Executive Director of University Relations