How the new design templates were chosen
UUA.org was born in 1996 and grew quickly and organically, first with the support of a cadre of volunteers and then with the support of a very small staff team. Within a few years we realized we needed to make some changes to manage our dramatic online growth. In 2002 the staff of the Office of Electronic Communication (OEC), working with the Director of Internet Technology (IT) Services, formed a Web Redesign Task Group. The members were made up of non-UUA staff participants familiar with Unitarian Universalism.The goal of the group was to give an unbiased "outsider's" perspective on UUA.org and to develop a set of recommendations for improvements. After site reviews and usability studies were completed (performed in 2002 and 2004) it was recommended that a thorough redesign in look, feel and navigation be undertaken for UUA.org.The guiding principles were to create a site that:
- presents a consistent sense of design throughout all its parts;
- presents a consistent sense of navigation throughout all its parts;
- is spiritual;
- reflects the UUA's goals, priorities and principles;
- focuses information toward providing easy access, logical links, and information for the lay leader, congregation member, inquirer and seeker alike;
- organizes materials so visitors to the site can find what they need through simple and intuitive navigation;
- has procedures in place to archive old materials so that there is a record of them but they aren't in the way of newer information;
- allows for staff in charge of specific content to have the ability to modify, delete, update and add information to their assigned page;.
- separates content from style elements and allows those style elements to be managed by the web designer;
- promotes accessibility, following the World Wide Web Consortium's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0.
In 2005 a UUA Web Redesign Team was formed to make these stated principles a reality. Its participants were UUA staff members chosen to represent their major staff group interests. The result of their work is reflected in the design templates you see throughout the pages of UUA.org.
Last updated on Monday, January 22, 2007.
