A complete overhaul of the University of Granada’s institutional website has been carried out, with major changes to its design and functioning.
The web has been completely redesigned, with a more sophisticated, intuitive and attractive appearance. Currently, our website is the first point of contact between our institution and a broad range of stakeholders, including prospective students, staff, visitors, international researchers, companies and ranking organisations. In order to meet the needs of these diverse stakeholders, we have thoroughly revised the structure and contents of our main institutional web.
Effective content management systems are of fundamental importance when it comes to web development. To this end, modern webs incorporate content management systems that allow information to be efficiently organized and stored, guaranteeing homogeneous information layouts and enabling even non-specialist staff members to maintain full control over content production.
The University of Granada is committed to developing, promoting and using free software. Consequently, free content management software has been incorporated into the new web and will feature in all future updates.
The home page is divided into the following sections:
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Header: access to social networks and search bar
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Main topics: relevant UGR news and events
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News: 6 news items are displayed via rotating banners, which also facilitate access to all previously published news items
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Related links: direct access to relevant pages
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Official announcements
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Events guide: cultural events, concerts, exhibitions, conferences and so forth
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Highlights
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Footer
The content management system used allows for a clearer and more appropriate presentation of information in line with the specific type of content being developed.
During the development process, the need to guarantee universal access to the web for people with functional diversity has been taken into account. This website complies with required accessibility standards and prevents the creation of non-accessible pages.
Another important factor that has been taken into account is usability; navigation is highly intuitive.
In addition, the new website is mobile adaptive, ensuring users can view contents from multiple devices. Internally, server speed has been improved, as well as the scalability of the system. As a result, if the web is saturated with traffic, resources (computers, memory etc.) are quickly reassigned in order deal with any potential problems. This feature, which has been purposefully integrated into the system, is not available on all websites.
The updating of the UGR’s institutional website is only the first phase of a comprehensive project that consists of several stages. In the coming months, the content management system will be completely developed and all the individual websites at the UGR, such as those of the Vice-Rectorates, Research Centres and Faculties will progressively be updated. Once the content management system is complete, the process of creating new websites will be become highly intuitive and will not generate additional costs.
Contact:
Miguel García Silvente, Director for UGR Web Services (Rector's Delegate for the Digital University)
Pablo Orantes Pozo, Coordinator of the Web Area, open data and transparency at the Centro de Producción de Recursos para la Universidad Digital (CEPRUD)
