It has been an eventful Spring at OUUC, and now that some big milestones have passed (like the auction and our Vision/Mission/Ends project), you might be wondering: “Hey, what about that website redesign?”
We embarked on this journey with a solid plan and high hopes. We quickly discovered the migration process (transferring all our current content over to the new site) would look much different than we anticipated. Because of the way our current site is designed and laid out, we could not complete an automated transfer of all this data and content — it had to be done manually.
Think of it this way: Instead of re-siding, re-roofing, and re-painting our existing house, we’re moving. We’re sorting through our belongings, packing everything up, and walking all our possessions to the house two doors down (so it doesn’t even make sense to rent a moving truck).
Even if this process sounds a bit alien, you might guess that this is extremely tedious and time-consuming. There is no way we could have anticipated needing to do our redesign this way, rather than the smooth transition we had planned, and it has thrown us behind our intended schedule.
Once we have the core elements of the site transferred over, we can proceed with the other steps I outlined previously. We will introduce the new site to OUUC Staff, then to the OUUC Tech Team and a group of OUUC members who have volunteered to be initial testers of the site. With their encouragement, we will make the new site “live” and it will replace what you currently see at OUUC.org.
We will still have work to do at that point. What you see will not be perfect, and we will be relying on you to let us know about any glitches or “bugs” you encounter. Plus, we will still be working to fill the site with more content.
This process has challenged us, but I am so excited about the end results! Thank you for your continued patience and curiosity about our website changes. I look forward to working with you all to make a wonderfully adaptive, intuitive, and visually pleasing finished product!
Please feel free to email me with any questions.
Jo Sahlin
OUUC Media Specialist
mediaspecialist@ouuc.org