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University redesigns website

Texas A&M University-Kingsville has redesigned its website in accordance with emerging web standards as well as to match its ongoing marketing and awareness efforts.

The redesigned website makes use of several advanced techniques. Foremost among them, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) are used for all aspects of content presentation. There are no more tables formatting text. The usage of CSS allows a single file to control layout and text formatting across multiple pages, enabling site-wide changes by altering a single file.

The use of style sheets reduces page size dramatically. Extra markup in the code is removed drastically reducing the file size of any given page. For instance, the old website home page weighed in at nearly 90K (approximately a 90 second download over a common computer modem); the new home page weighs in at just over 45K despite the increase of content and images.

Although the site uses advanced methods for presentation, the pages are designed to “degrade gracefully” in older web browsers. As an example, while Netscape 4.x isn’t supported by this website, pages are still legible in the browser without delivering a separate Netscape only page. The CSS can be deactivated inside your web browser and a text-only version of the site will be delivered without affecting the content of the site. As such, www.tamuk.edu is the first university in the Texas A&M University System and the second university in the state to come in full compliance with the World Wide Web Consortium’s standards for layout and design.

In addition to extensive usage of CSS for layout, the site now delivers news and events headlines via a Rich Site Summary (RSS) feed which any user may utilize on their own website—or even a standalone news reader. The feed is available for subscription or addition to other websites here.

Many pages have moved locations from the last iteration of this site. Most pages are now located in their own directory (i.e. http://www.tamuk.edu/news) allowing the publications office to change pages’ file extensions (.html, .asp, etc.) as the website develops without causing linkrot.

The central index of the website randomly cycles through (currently) 32 separate “Be Somebody” banners. Latest news and event bullets have been expanded and separated into two different columns—up close and latest news and events--allowing the publications office greater flexibility in posting content and ensuring the University’s internet front door is up to date.

The site also makes another change: most pages now display a ‘last updated on 1 September, 2004’ date stamp to let users know when the content on that page was last updated. The footer of each page now contains contact information for those users who request more information.

Also, on the previous web design, quick links located at the bottom of the home page as part of the footer have been given a more prominent location as part of the right-hand side bar in the hopes that they won’t ‘be lost.’

There are many other subtle changes too numerous to mention here, but they were all enacted with usability in mind. The Office of University Publications strives to make A&M-Kingsville’s website the best; the hope is that this new website is engaging as well as informative.

University Publications welcomes your questions and comments on our efforts.

This page last updated 21 December, 2004