Requirements Gathering

Vendor Re-engagement

As mentioned in a previous post, the core team spent part of the summer meeting with stakeholders and gathering requirements for the next phase of the project: expanding the homepage’s recent redesign to the remaining sites (“Level 3”). Responses from a Qualtrics survey were tabulated alongside the requirements cited by two of our sub-committees: the Web Design team and the Marketing & Community Development team, and data was then condensed into its finer points and coupled with the college’s accessibility standard, WCAG 2.0 AA.

Our team’s initial intent was to submit the work for RFP to attempt to reduce expenses and entertain creative options. However, in an effort to maintain the consistency of the site’s design and to mitigate the need for unnecessary exploration, we’d provided the vendor we initially partnered with the opportunity to offer us an estimate, and a renewed partnership with OHO Interactive stood out as a clear course of action. They will be responsible for the site design, and development work will be completed in-house.

Next Steps

The core team will continue to address the current needs of our division and department-level stakeholders while simultaneously laying the foundation for upcoming development. Over the next few weeks, our vendor will be gathering the requirements of our campus community by way of survey. This will be followed by remote interviews with key stakeholders before compiling and presenting their findings to the core team for review. Once confirmed, our vendor will then produce sitemaps and wireframes based on survey results.

A launch window has yet to be determined, but the sheer number of sites up for the redesign (200+) will likely require much more time than what was experienced during the core site update. Unlike the homepage, the level 3 launch will not be immediate; instead, the Web Design team will conduct a staged rollout, moving from one department to another, addressing obstacles as they arise. This will result in less impact to ongoing business processes.

As always, we are grateful for the patience and support provided us by the entire campus. Without your feedback and insight we’d not have gotten as far as we are. If you haven’t already, check out the updated Bellevue College Style Guide for information on publishing standards: https://www.bellevuecollege.edu/faculty-staff/style-guide/