George Washington University is unveiling the second phase of its new website today.
All nine schools and colleges now have a unified look, mirroring the university's main homepage. Some areas within the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences and the Medical Center, including the School of Public Health and Health Services and the School of Medicine and Health Sciences, have also begun to incorporate the new look and feel across its administrative and department websites.
GW began unifying its web presence last August when it launched a new homepage for the university. The university also launched its flagship online publication, George Washington Today, which highlights GW news as well as photos and feature stories about faculty, students and alumni.
"The second phase of the unified web project will bring all the schools online with a more unified look and feel as well as easier navigation, updated design and shared content," says Lorraine Voles, vice president for external relations, who spearheads the unified web presence project. "The project has been a university-wide effort led by both the divisions of External Relations and Information Technology and will truly unify our web presence. This has been an enormous effort with great cooperation from the schools."
While the new design system provides a consistent GW brand framework and access to university-wide content, it also allows for individual schools and colleges to be creative in supporting their unique needs. The new web pages highlight news and events; featured faculty, students, alumni and publications; quick links to information core services about the colleges and schools; improved social networking features and blogs.
"Our goal is to keep the momentum going for the schools and colleges and move as much as possible into the new system by next summer," says Paula Lawley, assistant vice president for online strategy and experience. The schools and colleges will continue to update the websites on a rolling schedule.
The third phase of the unified web project will be bringing all other university offices on board.
"Achieving this important milestone of adding GW schools and colleges into the unified platform has taken collaboration between technology and communication to a new level," says David Steinour, chief information officer for GW's department of information technology. "The results are truly impressive, and our goal is to continue to partner and foster this collaboration to further enhance and achieve additional GW goals that have a strong technology base."