Integrated Web Services

The College of Human Ecology website encompasses faculty, students, researchers, and extension associates from a wide range of disciplines. Site size and the number of stakeholders were two main challenges for the Human Ecology website; each stakeholder wanted very different things from their section of the website, and yet the site had to feel consistent. We achieved this integration by understanding our clients’ needs, through creative solutions on the part of our project team, and by working together.

Branding Effort: Unique units, consistent site

The College of Human Ecology features its website as an integral part of a branding effort. They wanted their print and web materials to complement each other. An additional challenge, however, is that the School has five large departments and five Centers and Institutes housed within the School. While the website provides a consistent layout and navigation, it also offers a different feel for each section by offering unique graphics representing the individual units.

Project Management

Strong IWS project management brought the varied and sometimes conflicting interests of the many stakeholders together. The project manager encouraged the group to form a centralized steering committee, with a liaison empowered to make requests of the content providers. Accurate advice about options and costs also facilitated decision making at every level.

Podcast

CHE’s podcast, presented on this site, is Cornell’s first use of a department-supported subscription of a podcast. The Dean offers audio content for free to subscribed community members, played by users at their convenience. A podcast might feature voices and speakers from Commencement, for example.

Training and Coordination

In order to give each unit in the College control over its presence in the website, it was necessary to provide training, support and coordination for over 100 contributing authors, none of whom had any experience with CommonSpot and many of whom had never produced web content. The IWS team produced a detailed, customized manual for these authors and provided a great deal of support for the content development and entry process.