USD 2.0: New Engineering Website Launches
The University of San Diego's complete website redesign, known as USD 2.0, has seen its latest launch: A new website for the Shiley-Marcos School of Engineering, which went live on Wednesday, November 17, 2021.
The school’s new virtual presence mirrors the growth and momentum of its programs, departments and centers, which have been rapidly expanding over the past few years.
Information about the school’s ever-evolving curriculum and programs are now represented in new undergraduate and graduate hubs, each highlighting the robust academic and research opportunities available in various degree paths. Each of the six undergraduate and four graduate programs emphasize hands-on study and immersive faculty collaboration.
The design and build spanned six months, including a usability study with prospective and current students from the school, ensuring that decisions about content, layout and design were made with the user in mind.
Content throughout the site has been refreshed to make information easier for students to find and use. New audience pages have been added with links, media and other resources catered specifically for their use. New functionality and content features have also been added.
A new academic programs selector on the engineering home page allows students to see a snapshot of each program without clicking to program-specific pages. Students can peruse basic details, salary information and other statistics and details directly on the home page.
Senior design projects, which are a key research component of all the school’s undergraduate programs, are showcased on the site through a new database-driven system, giving potential future students a better idea of the hands-on work that awaits them in the engineering program at USD.
New faculty and student scholarship and research opportunities are also highlighted, giving peers in their fields an overview of the outreach and collaboration that are hallmarks of a USD education.
Interactive effects have been added to the engineering home page banner and bring some additional dimension to the top part of the screen. The engineering site uses a feature called “particles,” but other visual elements are available for use. Other pages on the site use imagery and video to show the breadth of opportunities available in the school, including on-location research opportunities in the field.
Once launched, these new features will be available for use by any USD website within the 2.0 system. Previews will be available in the Camino digital library, ensuring that our approach to web at USD is an inclusive one and offerings aren't built in silo’s to be used by one area exclusively.
The USD 2.0 project continues with a website redesign for Copley Library, which launches in January 2022, and new websites for offices and departments across campus as part of the Phase 3 redesign project.
Of 154 sites total in the USD web ecosystem, 90 are now transitioned into the new 2.0 framework, marking our progress at nearly 60% of our completion goal. Student-facing websites were the priority early on in the project; websites for those areas are now complete. We expect to finalize transitions for all departments across the university in 2022.
New and enhanced features continue to be added to Camino, USD’s digital design system, and are tracked and announced via a changelog. If you maintain a website that’s been transitioned into the new system, be sure to bookmark the link and stay updated on new and exciting enhancements available to you.
— Joy Brunetti ’01 (BA)
Learn more at the USD Redesign website.