How can we make this web site most engaging? We’ve been asking that question a lot, and one clear answer is that the site must open a virtual door to this special place: It must show the faces and tell the stories of the people here.

To that end we’ve launched a new feature, “Meet a Deacon,” to introduce outstanding students, undergraduate and graduate. What are they studying? What are their goals? Why did they choose Wake Forest?

The site is kicking off with profiles of graduating seniors. We’ll be adding student profiles throughout the year. We invite you to Meet a Deacon and send comments our way.

Bold. Noble. Inquisitive. Resourceful. Intimate. Accomplished.

Where did those words on the new home page come from, and what is their significance? 

The short answer is that they came from the hearts and minds of people who hold Wake Forest dear: students, faculty, staff, alumni, parents, supporters, friends and fans.

The longer answer is that they evolved out of an extensive process in which the University reviewed its identity—what Wake Forest stands for as an institution, what makes it distinctive in the world of academe, and how to best communicate these values and attributes to those who love Wake Forest, as well as to those just learning about us.

Last year we went on an extended fact-finding mission, listening to constituents describe the “mystique” of this place. It was soon apparent that the “human” aspect of Wake Forest was foremost in everyone’s mind. The spirit of Pro Humanitate was reflected in the traits used to describe the University as if it were a person, with several words coming up again and again. These are what you see rotating on the new home page:

Resourceful

While its peers may have greater financial resources, Wake Forest rolls up his/her sleeves and, with a balance of imagination and practicality, finds a way to do more with less.

Inquisitive

Wake Forest is the inquisitive mind that asks meaningful questions and seeks groundbreaking solutions: “How can we realize the potential of stem cells?” “How can we better tailor education to each individual?”

Intimate

Wake Forest doesn’t see you as a number. Wake Forest knows your name works one-on-one with you.

Noble

Rather than developing oneself for personal gain, Wake Forest uses his/her gifts to better society.

Bold

Wake Forest is never a passive bystander. Adventurous, courageous, strong-willed, and confident, Wake Forest takes on new challenges.

Accomplished

Wake Forest is an accomplished individual who does good and does well.

These words will guide us as we share the stories of this great University—of those who study, teach and work here, and of those graduates who have gone out into the world.

Cherin C. Poovey (P ’08), Director of Creative Services

One of those was to migrate away from the old Campus Life page to the term Students for now (pending feedback). Our hope there is to build a robust student-oriented portal, that can both be used by current students as a resource and looked at by prospective students to see what’s going on at WFU.

What you see now on that page is similar to what you saw on the Campus Life page — a bunch of links. We plan to expand that page significantly to make clear areas for Students to be able to get to what they need: RL&H, Dining, financial services, academic resources, things to do, etc.

We plan to do the same with the Faculty/Staff portal as well. We know at this point, we’re probably missing a variety of useful stuff that should be on there, so please let us know if you have ideas for what would help you.

The sports site is run by CSTV (part of CBS Sports), in partnership with WFU. Prior to the dot-com boom, the college sports market was fragmented, but after the boom, CSTV came to dominate the market. It now handles the sports sites for about 215 universities.

The main site is handled in-house with a dedicated staff of three web people, plus a photographer and a writing team of three who also handle the WFU magazine, admissions publications and other print items. While the web team works with athletics on specific projects, we don’t work together on a regular basis.

We joked in the office that if we had sat down and tried to plan launching on the same day, we couldn’t have pulled it off. So this was just an interesting coincidence.

We plan to gather feedback, tweak design and code, launch new pages and add new stories, photos and functionality. In short, we have to evolve to consistently reflect the University’s people and programs, supporting the concept of the Collegiate University.

How do we get there? The list is long, but the starting point is obvious: We will start by again reaching out across the campus to keep others involved. As we do, we’ll be focused on firming up the new design and searching for a content-management system. At some point, those will come together as templates and tools to be shared across the University.

This is a small step forward on a long road of improvement. We hope it’s a fun and productive trip.

In addition, the site should start moving toward representing the entire University, as opposed to being focused on the undergraduate experience. Wake Forest’s strategic plan says that as a leading collegiate university, this should be “a place where undergraduate liberal arts curricula and graduate and professional school programs are mutually enriched by collaboration and mentoring.” The Web site should reflect that.

We hope we’ve met those short-term goals. Please feel free to drop us whatever comments you have either here or through the Contact Us page on the site.

Is this redesign “fully baked?”

No, but it’s as baked as it possibly could be in a 30-day window. 

While we didn’t have the benefit of time, we were lucky that we did have the benefit of a lot of thought and campus input over the last six months or so, plus a fresh strategic plan and visual identity. That gave us a lot more to work with than you would expect when taking on that assignment.

No one will pretend that this is perfect. We’ve got a long way to go in content, design, code and other areas. But the goal was to move the ball forward and be better than we were yesterday.

Now we have to remain in motion: continuing to make it “better than it was yesterday” every day as we morph toward something more “solid.”

The University intentionally put a hold on major Web redesign efforts while it went through a process to refine its visual identity. As that project came to a close at the end of 2007 and began to be implemented in early 2008, rebuilding the Web site with those new standards in mind became a high priority.

Wake Forest went through an extensive process to choose BigBad as its agency partner and added the position of Director of Web Development. In the late summer and fall of 2008, a core working team and a steering committee were formed with representatives from across campus.

Also during that time, BigBad held a series of “immersion sessions” on campus. Over several days, BigBad reps spoke with more than 75 people on campus. I sat in on these sessions, and it was a fantastic experience, both educationally and emotionally. To hear so many people from all parts of campus speak about what makes Wake Forest distinctive and about their passion for this place was a great way to learn and to be invigorated about working here.

From there, we worked through a strategy phase with BigBad, using the committees to do a variety of give-and-take. In the end, BigBad left us with several key items, including a large strategy document, some suggested information architecture, some suggested wireframes and feedback on possible content management systems. 

From there, Mark Petersen (the new VP of University Advancement) made the decision that we needed to move forward quickly with a redesign of the site. He charged the Web Services team in Creative Services to produce a new look for the top pages in about 30 days, the result of which you’re seeing today.