Owensboro

New Look & Updated Design

Owensboro Community and Technical College’s web implementation team is excited and working toward the launch of our new website early this fall. The main goal is to help visitors find the information they want easier and faster. Actual prospects and visitors evaluated all of the current KCTCS web sites and we learned that we all needed to do a better job organizing content, providing online services, and improving the way we manage and present our content. Our sites were difficult to navigate, the content wasn't written in a way that spoke to our audiences, the graphic designs weren’t consistent or current. This evidence helped lead to a new web site design.  The new design is flexible but will make it easier to manage a consistent look for our site, the electronic gateway for our brand image. The new templates have been tested by focus groups and all options exceeded expectations. The local web implementation team is very pleased with the direction and flexibility offered in utilizing these templates.

KCTCS has done extensive research to ensure that the format is appealing and adaptable.  A new content management system, Sitecore, will help us improve navigation and consistency in design. Sitecore, provides us with a single platform for managing and hosting all our public web sites. Why is that a good thing? Simply put, it allows our web sites to work seamlessly together, it allows local content experts to manage what shows up on the web, and it puts us in a position to build tools and services to meet our users expectations.

We're also taking a new approach to the basics: identifying our audiences, creating a web site architecture that's easy to navigate, using graphic design that reflects both who we are and who our audience is, and writing content that speaks to our audience in language they understand. The goal of the OCTC web implementation team is to create a web presence that:

• Is visually appealing utilizing the research and best practices in web graphic design,
• Is easy to navigate using solid information architecture principles,
• Provides relevant information written in a style and that speaks to the primary audience, current and prospective students.

What does this mean for me?

That really depends on who you are. If you're a prospective or current student, it means you'll find it easier to get to the information you need. If you're an employee of OCTC, it means the information you need for your audience is easier to find, and that you may even be maintaining that content on the web yourself. Sitecore makes that easy. For employees, it also means that much of the internally-oriented content on the OCTC web site will be moving to thePoint. Most of all, the new site is going to allow us to provide better content and service to all, while improving the way we manage our web site-the entry for our students.

Taking Pride in What We Do

In reality, this is what the Web Services Initiative is all about--taking pride in what we do. Yes, it involves new software, new ways of approaching content management, and re-envisioning how we do business on the web. But all of this, really, is not simply for us. Rather, we work hard and implement cutting edge tools because, ultimately, we truly believe in what we're doing for the state of Kentucky. The software and services that we use are simply tools: their true values lies in the fact that they will help us to better provide valuable education and training to our students, employees and communities that transform and improve lives, neighborhoods and beyond. Now that's something be proud about!

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