NSM Web Site Revisions

Current site organization

OrgChart.pdf

New organizational scheme

OrgChart-New.pdf

OrgChart-New-v2.pdf

NSM-OrgChart-v3.pdf

New Design

NsmWebSiteLayout.tif.zip

NsmWebSiteLayout-v2.tif

Primary navigation menu:

  1. About

    • Departments & Programs (directory) (overview text?)
    • Research Centers & Institutes
    • Industry Partnerships
    • Seminars
    • Dean's Page (welcome text with links to bio, recent publications, and bio dept fac pg)
    • Employment Opportunities

  2. Faculty

    • Faculty Directory
    • Faculty Honors & Awards
    • Innovative Educational Technology
    • College Committees

  3. Students

    • Admissions Office
    • Academic Advising
    • Requirements by Major
    • NSM Scholarships (Scholarships and Fellowships on one page)
    • UMass Scholarships (linked to scholarships page in commonwealth college under Academics)
    • Learning Communities
    • Undergraduate Research Opportunities
    • NSM Student Organizations
    • Career Services (Career Services for Students, Services for Employers--think about putting under resources?)

  4. Alumni

    • Make Your Gift Online
    • Alumni Events
    • Alumni Recognition
    • Alumni Sites by Department
    • UMass Amherst Alumni Association
    • Career Services for Alumni external link
  5. Contact Us

Resources menu:

  1. Community Outreach (includes Regional Science Fair 2004) and sunwheel
  2. Diversity in NSM (includes TWIST and EASAGE)
  3. Library
  4. Professional Organizations and Associations (from Science and Math Orgs)

News & Events menu:

  1. List of most recent headlines (similar to faux page menu on right)
  2. News & Events archive page linked to from bottom of news & events menu
  3. Newsletter
  4. Publications
  5. Experts page
  6. NSM Events

Issues to be addressed

General areas that need attention:

List of issues to be addressed:

  1. There's no index page for http://www.nsm.umass.edu/NSM_Web_Pages/
  2. Search UMass and People Finder links lead to an outdated page with a forward to the new page
  3. target="_blank" for subpage links in the navigation menu on the home page...backlinks from subpages to home page open in same window...but not always
  4. navigation menus don't visually reflect current page
  5. no alt tags on image rollovers in navigation menus
  6. site navigation menu is in the right-hand column on home page but on the left on subpages
  7. different style sheets for home page and subpages: href="3col_rightNav.css" vs. href="../site_files/nsm.css"
  8. subpages in www.nsm.umass.edu/NSM_Web_Pages/
  9. tables need to be cleaned up (style sheets, no borders, etc.) e.g., news.htm
  10. prospective students page, just a list of links, no text, hierarchy of pages in nsm site lost, not clear which pages are on other sites
  11. no convention for target blank versus self (i.e., when to open pages in a new window or not)
  12. departments and programs page, pop-up menus instead of list or table of links, not clear what's going to happen when you pick one, etc.; there are better layout options
  13. typographic conventions? lots of bold on innovative IT page
  14. not all pages fit in the browser window the same, e.g. department/programs seminars page suffers from fixed width table in the body pushing the whole page layout wider than the browser window
  15. both faculty links and faculty honors pages are named (in the page title graphic) faculty links
  16. need a consistent site-wide navigation scheme that includes home page > subpage > subsubpage > etc. Should avoid more than subsubpages. could use cookie crumb trail if hierarchy gets too extensive
  17. there are at least three different color schemes on nsm.umass.edu. low contrast and background images make pages difficult to read.
  18. Fellowships links on prospective students and current students pages link to different pages on the commonwealth college site (one is expired and is forwarded to the new site)
  19. Departments/Programs link in navigation menu leads to degree programs page with pop-up lists for departments, programs, and institutes and centers but should link to the departments and programs "home"
  20. academic units for (departments, programs, institutes, and centers?)

Orphaned Pages:

  1. NSM_Web_Pages/acadadvising2.htm
  2. NSM_Web_Pages/AcademicsDW2.htm
  3. NSM_Web_Pages/Adames.htm
  4. NSM_Web_Pages/addison.htm
  5. NSM_Web_Pages/alston.htm
  6. NSM_Web_Pages/Calendar.htm
  7. NSM_Web_Pages/CareerEmpl.htm
  8. NSM_Web_Pages/CCNRecruiting.htm
  9. NSM_Web_Pages/convoNews04.htm
  10. NSM_Web_Pages/DeptProgDW.html
  11. NSM_Web_Pages/easage.htm
  12. NSM_Web_Pages/easageIrvine.htm
  13. NSM_Web_Pages/easageYoung.htm
  14. NSM_Web_Pages/fulbrightAward.htm
  15. NSM_Web_Pages/giving.htm
  16. NSM_Web_Pages/golowka.htm
  17. NSM_Web_Pages/isbAgain.htm
  18. NSM_Web_Pages/isbBWfav.html
  19. NSM_Web_Pages/isbTEST.html
  20. NSM_Web_Pages/jobs.htm
  21. NSM_Web_Pages/kahn.htm
  22. NSM_Web_Pages/KaulenasCloneNews.htm
  23. NSM_Web_Pages/lennox.html
  24. NSM_Web_Pages/LMT.htm
  25. NSM_Web_Pages/marge04.htm
  26. NSM_Web_Pages/mcniven.htm
  27. NSM_Web_Pages/menu.htm
  28. NSM_Web_Pages/mestre.htm
  29. NSM_Web_Pages/newsagain.html
  30. NSM_Web_Pages/newsforreal.htm
  31. NSM_Web_Pages/NSF500Knews.htm
  32. NSM_Web_Pages/Osterweil.html
  33. NSM_Web_Pages/roff.htm
  34. NSM_Web_Pages/scidaysagenda.htm
  35. NSM_Web_Pages/TomRussell.htm
  36. NSM_Web_Pages/UmassRankStory.htm
  37. NSM_Web_Pages/WelcomeDW.htm.20050831
  38. NSM_Web_Pages/WelcomeDW.html.20030428

There are many other problems beyond just these "few" orphaned pages. Here is the summary of DreamWeaver's site report for broken links, external links, and orphaned files:

Files: 891 Total, 311 HTML, 231 Orphaned
Links: 12159 All links, 3481 OK, 49 Broken, 8629 External

Because there are so many pages, it's practically impossible to create an inventory that would be useful for our purposes. I think that the best way to proceed from here is to focus on the new site organization scheme and keep a list of pages/content we want to be sure to include.

Graphic Design