UC Santa Cruz websites will undergo a visual refresh on Monday, March 26, the first step in a plan to improve the campus’s online presence.
This first phase, which applies to all sites using the Web Content Management System (WCMS), will introduce official UC Santa Cruz brand colors and fonts to web properties for the first time. In addition to the primary blue and gold colors, the new look will use the secondary color palette which serves to highlight key information areas.
This refresh does not include any structural changes and does not remove any existing features of your webpages. The changes will be done automatically with no site manager action needed.
The campus homepage will have a “Feedback” button for a few weeks after the launch so visitors can submit comments. There is also always a feedback link in the footer of all WCMS pages which site owners monitor closely. The visual refresh can be previewed online.
The changes follow a comprehensive evaluation of UC Santa Cruz website and have been done with support of the UC Santa Cruz Web Leadership Team, which is co-chaired by Keith Brant, vice chancellor for University Relations, and Brad Smith, vice chancellor for Information Technology Services.
The Web Advisory Committee which includes academic, college, and administrative members, and the Web Users Group were consulted on the refresh.
UC Santa Cruz will start a more holistic web redesign process in spring with the aim to roll out with a new architecture late in the calendar year. The goal is to support two critical shifts in web strategy.
First, a modular design will allow site managers to customize their websites using content blocks for more layout flexibility. Second, a modular design will allow the campus to update each module as needed, moving away from having to revamp all websites every 5–7 years.
