After more than two years of work, the newest incarnation of UGA’s home page, www.uga.edu, was unveiled Aug. 9.
Marked by a sleek design, simple navigation systems and user-friendly menus, the site’s new look and feel were created to better showcase the university to visitors, students, faculty and staff.
“This next generation of the UGA home page and website is designed to be content-comprehensive yet user-friendly,” said Tom Jackson, vice president for public affairs. “An extraordinarily talented team of professionals in public affairs and EITS have worked hard to bring this project to fruition, and I congratulate them on the tremendous service they’ve rendered to the university.”
The home page, also called the gateway site, still contains all of the information and resources that have always been a part of UGA’s home page, but now includes new ways to navigate the site and find information, as well as new page layouts.
Users can check out fast new ways of finding information by using and enhanced “Search” box, the “Quick Links” bar at the top of the screen or the new “A-Z Index,” which catalogues every part of the university’s online presence in alphabetical order.
The site also features an “Events” panel that updates visitors on daily campus happenings, and “Arts” as well as “Online Giving” tabs.
The “Information for. . . ” pages got a facelift as well, with more links organized by topic and a news panel featuring news for students, faculty, staff and visitors.
Master Calendar
The university’s Master Calendar (http://calendar.uga.edu) has been redesigned to include live links and more search fields.
There’s an improved search box. Events are also searchable by date, event type (including free events), sponsor or audience. All events are linked to an event detail page with more information than the previous generation of calendar.
The calendar also features clickable event directions, RSS feeds and a button to add an event to your computer’s calendar.
The new calendar, which now features changeable background art, works the same as before in that units can still submit their own events via a public submit form. Those entries are moderated by the Office of Public Affairs.
UGA Today
The updated UGA Today section (http://news.uga.edu) houses news coming out of the university.
With links that allow users to search by topic, date published, school or college, and topic, the site aims to help interested parties find exactly what they’re looking for.
A search menu also helps users locate news about events, faculty experts, honors and awards, and outside articles that mention UGA. The new site is one-stop shop for all the latest news and research happening at UGA.
Columns
Columns (http://columns.uga.edu), the university’s faculty and staff newspaper, has a fresh design that emphasizes the work, stories and people at UGA.
Updated on Mondays during the academic year, the new Columns website features articles and photography relevant to employee interests.
The home page features three skyboxes with photos and a large, front page story as well as popular regular features such as the UGA Guide and Bulletin Board.