University at Buffalo - The State University of New York

Web Content Initiative

Introduction

The Web Content Initiative Project has been charged to produce and implement recommendations for improving the coordination and alignment of campus web communications in identified pilot sites. This work will lead to recommendations for the university to implement campus-wide, producing the infrastructure, standards and tools for a branded, message-centric, user-friendly web environment. By combining expertise in their respective areas, members of the task force will research and identify best practices in web communications and opportunities for the development of new and emerging web communication tools throughout the campus.

The UB 2020 Web Content Initiative Project includes representatives from three areas: University Communications (UC), the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences (SMBS), and the Office of the Chief Information Officer (CIO). These pilot group members bring to the project combined core expertise in marketing, branding, information architecture, user-interface design, shared infrastructure, training and support, and content development.

This year-long pilot project will provide the UB community with shared tools, templates, standards, documentation, information architecture and staffing models that will help the university grow to a more mature, consistent, well-branded web environment. Specific web sites included in the pilot are:

• Chief Information Office
  • UBit
  • CIO
• School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences
  • Medical school administrative site
  • Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Biomedical Sciences
  • Department of Pediatrics
  • Department of Biochemistry
• University Communications
  • UB 2020 (including Building UB, Strategic Strengths, UB 2020 Initiatives)
  • Office of the President web sites (including UB Council, Leadership Searches)

Deliverables

• Practices and infrastructure that fit UB’s web environment, its mission, and its strategic goals, scalable for the UB enterprise
• Standards and information architecture that can be used by central university programs, by schools and departments, and by specific university programs
• Templates that can be shared throughout the university, geared to helping users produce what they need efficiently and effectively
• Web content/production workflow and roles
• Web Content Management System (CMS) product using existing infrastructure
• Identification of centralized resources needed for web development support

Key Benefits

• Standardized institutional branding and enhanced school branding and messaging
• Integration of sites into business culture
• Consistency in navigation, friendly user experience
• Ease of use (empowerment of content providers by decreasing the level of technical competency needed to use the publishing system)
• Increased integrity of content and better processes for content providers and editors
• Content syndication, enriching multiple sites
• Centralized servers and applications and secure systems administration

The results of the Web Content Initiative Project will allow the university to foster good and long-lasting relationships with its many diverse constituencies—including the local and world community; prospective and current students, faculty, staff; alumni; current and prospective recipients of health and medical care; customers and clients; philanthropic donors—via improved web communications. They will also help UB to improve its marketing, training, customer support and in-house university community communication.