as.nyu.edu/biology
web refresh

content strategy | UX strategy

In 2019, the Department of Biology requested an organizational refresh of its entire site, specifically targeting site mapping and a cleaner organization of links.

In association with the Director of Administration and Faculty of Arts & Science (FAS) Communications, I assisted in refreshing the site to better streamline content for users. See the most recent version of the Department of Biology site as well as the version I assisted in creating and maintaining up to March 2022 (courtesy of the Wayback Machine).

1: Analyzing the previous site and Information Architecture (IA)

After taking a look at the homepage, we created an IA of all existing pages using Google Sheets, taking note of where they all are in relation to parent pages. We found content being displayed that cluttered the site with irrelevant information to students. For example, under Programs, there were resources related to programs in the navigation, but not actually relevant to being a Program.

Old Site Homepage


AEM Page Inventory

2: Redistribution of pages: What to keep and what to get rid of

Once we inventoried pages on the site, it was time to analyze!

Our limitations with the CMS in Biology unfortunately did not allow us to look into analytics or user interests into the site. However, much of the feedback we received from users, primarily faculty and students, involved several key points:

  • The site was difficult to navigate: Although filled with resources, much of the information of the Biology site was difficult to find and navigate. The site lacked cohesion and many resources did not feel relevant to their parent page (see Figure 1).

  • The front page felt underutilized and out of date, showing old news and offerings that no longer were relevant to the Department.

  • The site did not meet NYU's accessibility standards. By 2019, NYU strongly recommended accessibility to be implemented into older sites, like the Biology site, through the use of the Content Management System's components and accessibile design (e.g. structure through headers, bullet points, alt text, etc). The site did not meet these recommendations in many examples.

Figure 1. The Programs dropdown in the Navigation showed more than just "Programs", providing course syllabi, student awards, Graduate resources, etc.

3: Let's get to work! Finding new main navigation structure

At this point, while the website required major work throughout each page and child page, we prioritized structure, front page design and accessibility as the first iteration of our process.

  1. Structure - We began with the main navigation pages, thinking about how people understood and interacted with pages. We ultimately went with the following:

    1. People (Stayed the same) - this would house Core & Affiliated Faculty, Staff and People in History.

    2. Research (Stayed the same) - this would house all of Biology's research pillars.

    3. Academics (previously Programs) - Programs felt that it encompassed more than just Academic Programs, so we chose "Academics" to specify Biology's Undergraduate and Graduate programs.

    4. Outreach & Diversity (Stayed the same) - This would house major Biology initiatives, including SURP.

    5. Events & News (previously Events) - Previously, News lived under About Us. In order to emphasize the department's research and success by faculty and students through awards and grants, we wished to emphasize News by grouping it with Events. This houses Events, News and Videos.

    6. Resources & Forms (previously About Us) - About Us used to house many, many, many miscellaneous resources from the department (Chair's Welcome, News, Videos, Forms, Contact Us, etc). We felt that the title About Us was not inclusive and clear to these resources. Therefore, we chose the name Resources and Forms to better clarify this dropdown. This contains Contact Us, Forms, Resource Guides, Rooms & Calendars and Careers.

4: Front page design and overall Accessibility

Next came a conversation on the front page. While much of the front page was agreed upon to keep, we wished to refresh the News, PhD section and Shared Equipment spotlight.

Figure 2: Old design containing outdated news, PhD Program video and Shared Equipment Spotlight

A key conversation we had with the Department Chair was the goal of the front page in 2019. His goal was to emphasize the hard work by faculty, staff and students through the use of News and Spotlights.

I offered removing the PhD Program in Biology video and Shared Equipment Spotlight. My reasoning was the following:

  1. The PhD Program video, by 2019, was two years old and getting older. However, much of the explanation of the PhD program, even the Chair in the video, had changed or evolved. Keeping up with a new video every three years was possible, but not feasible due to the financial willingness of the department at the time. It felt easier to keep the video within the PhD section but remove it from the front page.

  2. Shared Equipment Spotlight, althought interesting, did not serve the Chair's purpose to highlight people. Instead, it only served to highlight tools rather than the products that those tools helped create.

Ultimately, he agreed, and we collaborated to create two sections: News and Research Highlights.

News would consist of a 3 x 3 accessible News component containing the latest news from faculty, staff and students. The most recent news would be on the left side while older news would reside on the right. Although we planned to only update 1-2 times a semester, we ended up updating this section as needed, turning out to be around 3 times a semester.

Research Highlights would have the same look and feel as News, except as a 2 x 3 accessible News component, highlighting specific Biology labs and research done through these labs.

In an effort to decrease the number of CMS pages within the Biology Department, all News and Research Highlights were required to link out to external pages.

For accessibility, I spent around 2 weeks manually checking on each Biology page to ensure accessibility within these pages. I worked with the NYU Accessibility team and did a 3-day Accessibility Bootcamp from NYU to prepare myself for this manual revision. To be frank, this was a strenuous process, but it allowed me to learn the ins and outs of accessible design and common practices when it came to accessibility.

After launch, we assessed feedback from faculty and PhD students, receiving positive feedback from the new sites navigation and front page design. The site was a success!

Lessons Learned

Although a success, like with every process, there were a few bumps down the road and some lessons learned along the way.

  1. Refreshing a site may require compromise; not everyone will get what they want, especially as we worked within NYU's existing CMS with limitations in components. My communication efforts with the Department Chair and Director of Administration was clear and concise enough for them to understand these limitations.

  2. Where there are losses there are also wins! Even if our exact ideas can't come to fruition, moving the needle toward the goalpost always felt fulfilling. Sometimes, our ideas did turn out the way we wanted, such as for the News and Research Spotlight. Overall, agile communication became key in a refresh like this.

  3. Having many stakeholders involved is great, but it is also important to balance the number of cooks in the kitchen with a reasonable timeline. The more people there are in a project (especially a high visibility project like this), the more ideas there are, the more disagreement there is and the longer it could take to reach our goal. We learned that it is better to have a wireframe of a product and bring stakeholders in intermittently for feedback rather than include too may stakeholders at all parts of the process. Guiding stakeholders and users towards a feasible product can make the process simpler and easier in the long run.