About this Site
The idea for the new LIS site was conceived in the Spring of 2007. The Website Redesign Committee was formed from the LIS Web Team and the members began planning the design and the code for the new site.
The members of the redesign committee are: Caitlin Nelson, Ryan James, Alice Tran and Anne Hillier.
For suggestions, problems, or corrections please contact the LIS Web Team at lis-web@lists.hawaii.edu
The Design
We wanted something colorful that would be energetic and appealing - reminiscent of tropical colors and feelings. The six-section color range is adapted from an LIS 691 Information Architecture student project developed by Christian DeLay, Viil Lid, Nam Nguyen, and Brian Norman in 2005. While having the colors be vivid, we wanted the layout to be fairly simple with a permanent menu across the top, a dynamic navigation section on the left, and a white-background content area in the middle. The font is Verdana - developed specifically for easy-reading on the web.
We hope that the new design will showcase more images – of Hawaii, of students and faculty, and of all kinds of people working as information professionals. It is important to show not only images of people, but images of people interacting with each other and with technology – we want to not only include the traditional images of books but also show what kinds of technology librarians work with. Our viewers are people, and among all the text on the web it's nice to see pictures of other people - especially those with whom we have worked and gone to school.
Hawaii is a vibrant and beautiful place - and our students, faculty and staff are too! We hope the look and feel of this website conveys a little of that to our viewers.
The Logo
The LIS logo, designed for this site in 2007 by Caitlin Nelson and Conway Carter, is meant to represent the shape of the Hawaiian islands while at the same time evoking the idea of connectivity and "nodes" of information. We didn't want to do something book-ish, and after looking at the many different ways "information" is visually represented, decided against the well-used lower-case "i" motif as well. Hopefully this logo is something that is both familiar and unfamiliar to our viewers, abstract and concrete - and at least colorful and interesting!
The Code
Over the summer of 2007, the Website Redesign Committee has worked hard to create a new "content management system" for this site using HTML and PHP. The navigation is dynamically generated from a database of webpage information, and the content is pulled into each page using the PHP "include" function. This allows us to manage the site better with less effort on the part of the web programmer - and has given us a chance to learn new programming languages and web design technology.
New Developments
Based on our own development ideas and feedback from the preview session in August 2007 (comments from students, faculty, alumni and local librarians) we have some great ideas in store for the continuing improvement of the site. Please check back in to this page for the latest development news from the Web Team.
In the Works...
- Student ePortfolios page - electronic portfolios highlight the students' work, experience, and interests to viewers, including prospective employers!
- Alumni Profiles page - we want to hear from you! Alumni in exciting or unusual jobs please send us your information and a photo so we can share your story.
- More photos - we want to see your beautiful faces adorning every page of this site! Please send your photos to the LIS Web Team! (lis /dash/ web /at/ hawaii /dot/ edu)
- Regular updates - we strive to update these pages to reflect the most current and accurate information, however we are currently in a state of flux with the launch of the new site. Please send any suggestions or corrections to the Web Team.
Ideas, Comments and Suggestions (August 2007)
- "Have a new photo/image every time the [front] page is reloaded or refreshed."
This is definitely possible, but we need the photos. Send your photos to the Web Team! - "Include a people finder function with a directory of faculty and students with contact information so that we can contact each other easily. Maybe we could have short profiles on people too, with little photos. I like the michigan website: http://www.si.umich.edu"
Possible, but a lot of work for us to maintain. We'd have to implement some kind of login system where people could update their own information... - "Maybe we could incorporate some snazzy video, like on a welcome page from the current department head where we have a short clip of the professor saying "welcome" to prospective students."
Totally possible - but we'd need to get the video going and all that... - "I would like to see access to resources shared at Manoa for workshops. I feel like I miss out on a lot of great things living on the outer islands."
We agree that this is a good idea. We're working to share as much information online as possible. - "I think it is a great idea to use photos on the pages. Check out Syracuse's School of Information Studies at http://ischool.syr.edu. Photos definitely make the pages come alive! I noted that they also have a section for Alumni. Is this something we should also consider?"
We are definitely making an Alumni Profiles section (currently in the works) and of course we're hoping to add as many photos as we can to the new site. - "The main thing that was missing was the Hawai'i look and feel that I saw the very first time I came to the website about three years ago... The current design could be anywhere, I would love to see something that emphasizes that the program is in Hawai'i."
We tried to do this with the bright colors and island/info logo - I think with the addition of more pictures this feeling will come. - "I would suggest adding photos that represent the range of students in the program and the variety of information positions graduates hold: i.e., including men, all ages and looks, ethnic backgrounds, prior and current experience, different job types, on-the-job and in action, etc."
We are working to gather photos now, and we'll have to see what we get - but yes, clearly this is a great ideal to shoot for! (No pun intended...)