Visitors to the University's website home page on the morning of August 28 didn't find the
familiar navigation menus, plain white background and images of campus they've seen since that
basic lineup was first formulated in 1997. Instead, they were greeted by . . . the smiling face of
chemistry Professor Olaf Wiest?
Wiest's trailblazing research on skin-cancer prevention inaugurated the launch of the
completely redesigned nd.edu, which provided the Notre Dame community and first-time
visitors with intriguing options: Watch the video on Wiest's work and from there dive into the
scientific frontiers being explored at Notre Dame, or click on one of the shadowy, smaller
screens tucked just behind his to see what they were about.
That click rotated to a welcome message from University president Father John Jenkins,
CSC, and student body president Liz Brown. Another brought forward a short film on Summer
Shakespeare. Yet another foregrounded information on the new Eddy Street Commons
development, and so on to several other timely messages and stories.
This interactive carousel of scholarship, prayer and community life at Notre Dame,
evocative of a spinning series of back-lit and animated stained glass windows, constitutes a
unique approach to web presence in higher education. It was made possible by new technologies
that supported the creation of the carousel's screens, which function like miniature websites, and
streamlined the video delivery process, bringing the huge files to site users quickly.
"The challenge for a university of any size is to build a website that can distribute a
complex list of content," says Matthew Klawitter, the director of the University's web group.
"It's almost impossible to organize information in a way that makes any sense." Conventional
approaches leave web design teams trying to incorporate everything, which can result in
something like a "pretty, shiny phone book." He and his team, working closely with the
University's media group in the Office of Public Affairs and Communications, weren't content
to do that.
Early in the year-long redevelopment process, Klawitter says, the team recognized that
the University already had a well-established identity as a place of exceptional scholarship and
strong faith, a vibrant community with a commitment to social justice. What was needed was a
dynamic vehicle that would carry the message beyond campus.
From that point, the working concept was to immerse visitors in Notre Dame, giving each
of the University's constituencies -- alumni and prospective and current students, parents,
faculty and staff -- as complete and experiential a picture as possible of what's happening on
campus. Those audiences will find similar carousels targeted to their interests on their sub-pages,
which are linked from the home page. In each case, the carousel screens are meant to lead
website visitors to more information about people, departments, initiatives and events at Notre
Dame that correspond to their interests. New videos and information packages will be posted
regularly while Klawitter's team incorporates feedback and explores possible additional features.
"We want to have visitors see Notre Dame the way Notre Dame really is, to see it as a
deeply special and layered place. The carousel is a metaphor for that layered-ness," Klawitter
says.
Klawitter is also excited about the site's Google-powered search engine and its fresh
organization of tools and information, which includes extensive "Help Center" and "Popular
Sites" features at the top of the page. New section tabs that spotlight "Campus & Community,"
"Faith & Service" and "Leadership" give ND neophytes an up-front sense of how the campus
views itself.
The redesign and reconstruction effort was conceived, created and executed in-house at a
fraction of what it would have cost to outsource the work to a professional web development
company. Ripple Effects Interactive, a Pennsylvania-based company, supported the initial
research phase, which included surveys and focus groups among various site users. Klawitter
likens the end result to trading in an old Hyundai for a 2008 Mercedes -- without the financial
pain.
His staff, he says, is itself a fraction of the size of similar units at peer universities, and he
expects the new nd.edu to change the way other schools present themselves on the Internet.
"Notre Dame is trying to be a leader in everything we do," says Todd Woodward '93, the
University's associate vice president for public affairs and communications. He believes the
site's real test will be whether alumni feel it represents their experience while it reaches out to
potential new members of the Notre Dame family.
"In the end, this isn't about the technology," Klawitter says. "This is a privilege, and
we're committed to using our position and expertise in the greater effort to continue making
Notre Dame a better place."
(October 2007)
