Web redevelopment - User surveys and stakeholder engagement to begin in April

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

As reported in February, the website for the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, as well as the sites for all its departments, divisions, programs and centres will undergo a major redevelopment. This will incorporate the new design rolled out by Western University several months ago. It will also require a change to the content management system (CMS) used by most of the departments across the School. We will be moving to CASCADE.

All programs and departments who will be part of the first phase of the redevelopment have been contacted and they include a mix of basic science, clinical and education departments, as well as several Dean's Office units. Most of the departments participating in the first phase of the change are already using CASCADE.

Whether you are part of the first phase or not, your feedback and ideas will be invaluable to the team as they advance this work. In the next few weeks, all staff will receive a survey and be invited to share their thoughts how we can enhance the navigation and structure of the central based pages, as well as their own departmental pages. Faculty and staff will also be invited to attend one of several stakeholder engagement sessions, during which you will take part in a discussion that will be inform the project manager on how best to advance this work. A further user survey will also be developed, allowing us to receive feedback from external users.

With your feedback we will begin developing the structure and navigation for the website(s).

Training on the new CMS will be offered to all new users of CASCADE. Training sessions will be scheduled during the different phases of the work to ensure users have a chance to practice and use what they have learned immediately.

If your department would like to receive additional information about the web redevelopment project, you can contact Kristin.tate@schulich.uwo.ca