Web Redesign
New look, new feel
Welcome to the new and improved University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire website; a redesigned space for prospective students, current students, faculty and staff, alumni and community members to find information in a more clear and concise way. The look, feel, and content structure have all changed. The information and navigation is geared toward future Blugolds, who are using the website as a tool to find out if UWEC is a good fit for them. All other content is organized according to specific audiences, which can be found near the top right corner of the page.
By splitting up content based on audience and keeping only prospective student content at the forefront, we are better able to present the necessary information to the appropriate audience without cluttering the prospective student's journey of navigating the website. The website is a major recruiting tool for our university, so streamlining the content for the prospective student is a top priority for the redesign effort.
What's new?
Technology
With this new redesign, we changed from a content management system called Commonspot to a system called Drupal. Drupal is best described as the back-end framework of the new site. In addition to Drupal, the new site is managed through a front-end system called Athena. Athena is a much more user-friendly technology than Commonspot, and updating photos, stories, videos and pages will be more efficient and precise in the new system.
Side navigation
To account for different subsets of pages within a unit or department, we created a sidebar navigation. This side navigation is similar to the "fly-out" function of the old site. The bold title signifies what page you are on. On the mobile site, the navigation will always be located in a drop down near the top right of the page and will change depending on what unit or department you are in.
Where do I find what I'm looking for?
Each audience landing page is located at the top right of the site. Be aware that this header collapses as you scroll down the page, but appears again when you scroll back up. Upon clicking on an audience type, you'll be brought to a landing page with most visited page links for that particular group. Above the audience selectors you'll find quick links to the directory, master calendar, Outlook, D2L and CampS.
Need to get to a page that's not a quick link or a link on your audience landing page? Use the search function! The search function combs through the entire UWEC site.
Bookmark most used pages
With change, comes frustration. That's totally understandable. To make this new redesign a smooth transition, we encourage you to bookmark the appropriate audience landing pages located at the top right of the page. This will make finding necessary information much more efficient. Just simply go to your bookmarked audience page and navigate to what you are looking for.
What to expect
Be aware that this redesign is a constant work in progress. While our initial launch took place on March 19, we plan to roll out new pages as soon as they are completed. It is also important to know this redesign project was not a one-to-one migration. Some pages still link to legacy CommonSpot and some pages link to new Commonspot. Please reference the images below to distinguish between what is legacy and what is new. Our focus for our initial launch was to create new pages for the information geared to the prospective student. As we move forward, we will continue to address the pages for current students, faculty and staff, alumni, and community that link back to the Commonspot environment.
Legacy Commonspot
New Commonspot
Editing faculty and staff profiles
As a faculty or staff member, you now have access to the profile system within Athena. No training is required to edit a profile. Below are some how-to articles to make edits. To begin editing your profile, click here.