Best of CASE District II Award
 

Institution: York University

Title of entry: York University Website Optimization

About this entry: York University’s Website Optimization Project strengthened institutional reputation in support of the University’s Academic Plan. This pan-university project was grounded in best practices and was optimized to ensure key audiences had the best user-experience. This project also provided developers with a roadmap for brand alignment, consistent navigation, and training for implementation. It was built on collaboration, input and feedback from the entire community.

Optimizing York’s web ecosystem is a continuously evolving project. Key milestones included the first phase launched in September, 2020 and Phase 2 launched in March 2021, with additional phases continuously rolling out. The implementation took place at two levels; pan-university and individual areas who own content. A project team served as the leads that identified common themes and pain points that were then addressed in the broader user experience through consultation with stakeholders and supported by industry research.

Through the process the project team identified the need for a digital experience governance framework to guarantee the successful execution and the ongoing maintenance/sustainability, to which a new Digital Experience Council was instituted.

Under the leadership of central marketing, the project team's main goal was to improve owned websites and help the community improve individual sites in York’s multi-site environment by implementing consistent designs, userexperiences, aligned navigation, visual standards, technical training, and common brand messaging. In addition, the project team developed 100+ custom modules that were researched to be both AODA compliant and mobile optimized, so website owners could design beautiful and technically sound websites within a structured format.