UMKC website

The redesign of the UMKC website was a massive undertaking that included input from people across the campus. We not only overhauled the look and feel of the website, but we also defined the web policy for UMKC, cleaned up the web servers and instituted new requirements. For example, the UMKC header (everything including and above the light gray line) was a new element required on all official websites, providing consistent navigation and branding across the site.

I was involved in almost every stage of this project and helped to develop many pieces of it. I worked with the Director of Creative Services to create the design and coordinated with IT to integrate my designs with the code they had written to support the home page and top-level pages. I also participated in several committees, wrote many of the new Web guidelines, developed sample page templates to distribute to campus and co-chaired the Web Liaisons Group, a gathering of campus web editors.

Since the launch of the new look in 2008, the website has continued to evolve in order to keep it current until the next redesign. I added the Choose UMKC block on the top left to highlight resources for future students, updated the slideshow tool as standards changed, added the tabs for news and events on the right and retrofitted the entire layout with responsive design to optimize for mobile devices. While we are now due for a redesign, we don’t get complaints about the current layout, and many departments and schools have even voluntarily adopted the look of the UMKC home page for their individual sites.