New look for University's website
The University homepage has a new look, marking the completion of the website migration to EdWeb, the new Drupal-based content management system.
The migration project has been delivered collaboratively by teams within Information Services, including IS Applications and the Website Programme; Communications and Marketing; and with stakeholders from schools, colleges and support services across the University.
What’s new?
The previous content management system lacked flexibility and the old website was not suitable for modern mobile devices.
Drupal has allowed the University to create a responsive design, meaning it adapts its layout to the user’s device. Making this change for such a large website makes the University sector-leading.
The University has also created a design framework called EdGEL, which allows anyone creating web content to maintain continuity in design with the rest of the University’s website, simply by using the EdGEL design components.
Drupal
Drupal is one of the largest open source content management systems in the world, and by adopting Drupal, the University joins a large software development community.
We've joined a community with longevity and security, one that will evolve with new technological trends.
Code and collaboration
Parallel to the delivery of the content management system, colleagues have also distributed the system’s code base, which schools can develop for themselves if they choose not to use the central website service.
We have sought to find a balance between centralisation and independence to allow a unified look and feel but with scope that allows a higher degree of creativity for individual colleges and schools. This is incredibly powerful.
More than 50,000 pages
The content migration project started in August 2014. It was completed in five phases, the final one ending with the University’s homepage. More than 50,000 published pages have been migrated from the old system into the new one.
EdWeb will continue to evolve, with future steps including bringing other parts of the University’s system, such as MyEd, in line with the new look.