Director's Blog

Launch of the Unified Site design is approaching fast. We are on target to go live with a new look and feel for OHSU online in February, so I thought you should know what to expect. First of all, only a small segment of OHSU's current web presence will change. The main OHSU landing page, www.ohsu.edu, and each of the top-level mission pages will be completely redesigned in accordance with the Unified Site visual identity guidelines. Below this level, existing websites will not change. Existing commonspot sites will be transferred to the new environment Renee McKechnie described in a previous post, but they will not be redesigned for the February launch. The only section of the current web that will change significantly below the top level is the About OHSU section. Web Strategies and the Strategic Communication group are working together to create a completely new area on the website for learning about OHSU.

This does not mean that we are going to just put a new coat of varnish on the front door of our website and declare victory. We are developing a completely new information architecture for all of OHSU that will facilitate the migration of existing sites into the new structure over time. As this architecture gets refined, we have been posting documentation on the Web Strategies website. Several departments have already put in a great deal of work on recreating their sites in line with the unified site design. These will be in the vanguard of the migration.

Part of the new architecture is a move away from organizing content according to our org chart. Our new approach revolves around our various audiences and the tasks the need to accomplish on our websites. So while a department may consider itself primarily a research organization, the will likely have some content that is more oriented toward education or healthcare. Similarly, a clinic under the healthcare mission may also have an outreach component. The new architecture allows OHSU to present an integrated picture of what we have to offer while still preserving the identity of all our individual units. In February we will have example sites available to demonstrate how this cross-mission navigation will work. These won't be live sites, but will be available for review as each area begins to consider integrating their site with the new OHSU design.

As we roll out with Unified Site, Web Strategies is available to assist with the planning and execution of migrating your site to the new world. Start laying the groundwork now by looking hard at your content, who your audience is and what you want to help them accomplish. We are here to help so please don't hesitate to give us a call.

• Web Strategies Site Redesign (May 1, 2008)