The University’s Web Site Has a New Look!

But it’s much more than a new look—it’s a whole new way of looking at UNC Asheville. Thanks to a year’s planning, research, design and construction, the Web site will offer easier navigation, appealing design, and tons of new content and photographs. The goal of this project has been to put the needs of the Web user first, and to give both on-campus and off-campus visitors to our Web site an opportunity to learn more about the people and programs that make UNC Asheville such an exciting community.

Some of the new features of the site:

• A new architecture and visual design that have been extensively user-tested to ensure that visitors find what they are looking for—as well as a lot more than they expected
• More opportunities to experience our campus through photographs, video, the voices of our students, faculty and staff
• New ways to share stories about our students, faculty, and staff and the ways they are making a difference in the world
• A new server platform that replaces aging, outdated hardware
• A content management software package called Drupal that enables campus Web authors to quickly add new information to the site without knowing all the ins and outs of Web design and HTML coding
• Additional ways for Web visitors to interact with our community like “Ask a Student”
• Better organization and visibility for events that are happening on campus, which will encourage more community members to participate in our campus activities
• Visibility for the latest news updates and faculty experts on timely topics
• More consistent branding and visibility for the university

About 100 pages of the current unca.edu site are included in this first phase of the design, but as you go deeper into the site you’ll be taken to legacy pages that have not yet been converted to the new templates. These pages are slated for migration to the new design during the Spring semester.  

For more information on the redesign process, go to the Redesign Web site blog to find out why we have chosen the designs that appear on the site, how we went about soliciting your opinions of what should be changed, and who was involved in this project.

As we continue to add content to the new site, there will be additional changes made based on continued feedback from our users. Your opinion matters, so let us know what you think. E-mail your comments to webmaster@unca.edu.