Below is the rationale behind the redesign of SFU's homepage.

Strategic Redesign
The Internet is constantly evolving and changing and web sites should reflect that change and evolution. The home page for www.SFU.ca hadn't changed in three years. Three years, by Internet standards is considered to be the life span limits of a web site that tries to maintain a contemporary fresh look and feel on the Internet. Our team wanted to recreate the 'modern and contained feel' of the previous page, as it was when it was initially launched, yet repackage and redevelop the components on the site to take advantage of new developments in web site design and coding.

Responding to Issues in the Current www.SFU.ca site
There were several outstanding issues with the previous SFU web site that we tried to resolve in this latest version of www.SFU.ca. All of the issues revolve around accessibility. Our main goals were to:

1. Speed up the download time
2. Provide a disability accessible site
3. Create a logical structure for increasing the amount of resources by subdividing a single page of all links (previous) into several pages of categorized links (new site).

Download Time
High on the list of issues was the lengthy download time of the previous page. The previous www.SFU.ca page was very graphically heavy. This meant the web page contained a great many image parts that had to be downloaded before the page or more importantly, the links, would be used in a browser. Long download times are very frustrating for many Internet users, so reducing the download time meant removing almost all of the graphic elements from the site and substituting graphics elements that are created via code. Code driven graphics can be downloaded extremely fast, and are usable the instant they appear. Code driven graphics always appear in a browser before image graphics.

The previous www.SFU.ca page had been timed unofficially, on a 54.4 modem connection as taking 2 minutes 20 seconds to download all of the components. You may have had faster or slower results, but anybody on a modem connection knows what the issue is. The new home page downloads in a fully functioning fashion on a modem in less than 3 seconds, with the large photograph appearing by the 8 to 10 second mark. If you find this is not the case please send us feedback.

Disability Issues
Another issue which became part of the creation team's mandate, was to make the www.SFU.ca site compliant with disability standards and the reader software used by disabled groups. The standard chosen was Bobby Compliancy. The previous site, which used a great many javascript rollover images was not possible to migrate over to Bobby compliant standards. Javascript rollover images, using the layers method, cannot have the ALT tag attributed to an image so no text description can be attributed to a button, even if the graphic represents a word. Much of this issue has been corrected with the new site. All links within the site using the navigation have been created using HTML text and do not require the ALT tag. There are two additional links, via the SFU crest and the header Simon Fraser University graphic which have been given ALT (alternate) description tags.

If the new site is tested using the Bobby Compliancy test, it appears to fail some of the standards. However on closer examination of what and why it fails, the issues have been met, but the system is unable to test for them. Several of the image graphics, specifically the lines, in the new page are created through a 1x1 pixel graphic which hold no intrinsic meaning for the site. They have been given the ALT description of "" (nothing <on the excellent recommendation of a knowledgable informed individual>). The other issues that appear are points where testing is unreliable, and a personal evaluation is required, yet may affect readability. As a last standpoint, when the site has been finalized, a text only version of the site will be created.

For a full explanation on this issue, you can visit: Bobby Compliancy and also SFU's new suggested standards.

From One Home Page to a 'Micro Site'
Another issue with the previous SFU home page was the sheer volume of links on one web page to areas and departments and services at Simon Fraser University. There were more than 150 different links on the previous page, which were accessed through the "layers" method in the various navigation menus. Every visitor to the site had to sift through the various rollovers to get to where they were going. The need for Bobby Compliance meant another method had to be constructed to retain or expand on the large number of links, yet maintain a user friendly and functional experience for the user of the web page.

Our answer was to convert the web page into a two-leveled micro web site. The first level became an access portal from the point of view of different user groups:

Prospective Students
Current Students
Faculty & Staff
Alumni
Co-op Employers (added)
General Public
Media


President's Message
Support SFU (modified)
UniverCity (added)


Administration (repositioned)
Academic Programs (modified)
Teaching
Research
Continuing Studies (added)
Library Services
Campus Services (added)

As well, we retained links to all the directories, the services, and all the information pertaining to the university as a whole. The second level pages are focused venues that can be more descriptive of selected major areas of the university. As an example, the Faculty & Staff page could then have more access points with small descriptions to aid the user in finding the right location and information. Descriptions for all or any of the links is not possible within the previous site.

We looked at the most popular links from the existing homepage and have subdivided them accordingly, regrouping many of the links into a "second layer" of the site to carry the new design deeper. This new style expands on the site's initial links and leads the user further into the site to the content while also presenting additional avenues into that content. For a general project sitemap, see The Concept.