CollegeWebEditor.com gets a makeover

To celebrate her two-year anniversary in the blogosphere and her 300th post, CollegeWebEditor.com blogger Karine Joly plans to unveil an updated version for her blog on Monday, Feb. 12. The change isn’t a radical departure from the current look, but she’s reorganized a few things and has tweaked the interface enough to merit a mention.

Here’s the current look:

CollegeWebEditor.com - the old look

And here’s what you’ll see starting on Monday:

CollegeWebEditor.com - the new look

Karine shared her plans with some fellow bloggers in an email on Sunday. To the chagrin of some readers (but not me), she decided to keep orange as a mainstay color. Among the new features, according to Karine’s email:

  • a selection of the best higher ed bloggers
  • a direct link (top tab) to Higher Ed TV, a growing selection of the best higher ed videos available on YouTube
  • an about page (top tab) with a photo (mainly for my mom ;-)
  • an attempt to make some money to pay the hosting bills via an integrated Amazon bookstore (I’m not holding my breath, though, with a 4% commission – and have just included a few books for now

So, drop by Karine’s place and let her know what you think about the new look. I’m sure she’ll continue to post some of the best content out there for higher ed marketing folk.

How to survive a website redesign

Karine Joly offers five timely tips for surviving a website redesign. from Ben Riseling of Duke University. Why timely? Because UMR is working on a redesign right now — not because it’s time, but because on July 1, 2007, our university will have a new organizational structure. We’re calling it the “zero-school” model. We’re in the process of eliminating the layer of three schools and one college to flatten the organization. This change will affect the current navigation significantly.

If you want even more tips for web redesign, read Joly’s latest University Business column: 10 Tips to a Successful Website Redesign.