By now you may have noticed the big changes made to the University of Maryland, Baltimore’s (UMB) website. At approximately 8 p.m. tonight, UMB’s site redesign went live. The new design, which features a cleaner and welcoming feel to the University’s presence on the Web, is the culmination of efforts by the Center for Information Technology Services and the Office of External Affairs’ Web Development staff.
The site was redesigned based on feedback received in the campus-wide Web survey that was held from October to December, 2009. The redesign team also conducted extensive research on Web trends and best practices for higher education websites. The result of this research is the design that is now in place.
The University colors—red, black, and gold—have been incorporated into a design that has more photography and is less “cluttered” than the previous design. The new design uses contemporary technical approaches for navigating and communicating news and events dynamically, and it takes advantage of social networking tools such as iTunes, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter in order to improve communications to the campus community and beyond.
The UMB homepage is the world’s gateway to University. The redesign greatly enhances that gateway. And we want each school and department, and every story that makes the UMB campus unique represented on the homepage.
The new look is wonderful! I like that the whole screen is being used and Maryland’s colors have been abstracted a bit. I can’t wait to try the new navigating tools
I am not sure if it is different or not, but I used to search for any place I would like to navigate to in the search window, and it never failed me. Today, I was searching for the Bioresco (Freezer program), but it did not show with results?
Ahmed,
Thanks for the comments. The search functions of the website have not changed with the redesign. We’ve only made it more accessible by including it in the header of every page (as opposed to just the homepage as it was previously). You can find the search results of the term “Bioresco” here.
finding the directory is a pain. Can it be added to one of the drop-downs?
Penny,
Thanks for the comment. The directory is now part of the search function, and is located at the top of every page. Simply type in the name of the person for whom you’re searching, and select the “Find a Person” option. This will take to you the directory and immediately bring up the information for your search. This method eliminates the two-to-three clicks that were previously necessary to find the directory.
Is there a link to the university email that can be added or am I just unable to find it on the homepage?
Kelli,
Thanks for the comment. Because there are numerous email systems on campus, there is no way to include them all on the homepage. However, clicking on the helpdesk link (located in the Featured Links section) will provide you with the various Webmail options.
Must the picture on the top be so large? It takes up half the screen! I would rather be able to see the top links better.
The search engine is still pathetic. For example, type in ACUO and instead of getting the Animal committee web page, as you might expect, you get some kind of powerpoint presentation. This is not helpful. Google manages to find the page, why can’t this site!
The directory is hard to find.
How do I find a link to apply online?
Holly,
You will need to visit the website of the school to which you’re interested in applying.