Background

Omni CMS

In late 2019, University Brand Strategy and Communications (UBSC) began working with campus partners to create a better user experience for visitors to unt.edu and all websites within UNT's domain. The process included a thorough review of Drupal — the university’s current Content Management System (CMS) — as well as other potential enhancements that could make our websites more accessible and provide a better search experience. UBSC and ITSS also hosted two web town halls to provide information and answer questions regarding the upcoming process and goals for the project.

Following a comprehensive review of two finalists, Modern Campus Omni CMS was selected as the new enterprise platform. Modern Campus has been serving higher education for more than 20 years, and a review committee comprised of representatives from several campus divisions determined that its CMS will make editing websites easier and ensure a more consistent brand and user experience across all of UNT’s websites.

Omni CMS Features include:

Flexible workflows
In-context editing
Drag-and-drop editing
WYSIWYG editor
Accessibility checks

Spell checks
Social media integration
Reusable assets
Image galleries

Image editing
New page wizards
Link checks
Versioning

Robust permissions
Instant publishing
Google Analytics integration
Forms

Omni CMS Implementation

UNT partnered with Modern Campus to migrate 50 websites into Omni CMS. UBSC and ITSS will coordinate the migration of the remaining UNT sites in partnership with site owners across campus. Site owners will be contacted 6-8 weeks in advance before their site(s) are scheduled for migration. The following phases break down the migration of our first 50 sites.

Phase I – Recruitment, Retention and Institutional Priorities
Phase II – Student Services and Faculty Success
Phase III – Colleges, Schools and Departments
Phase IV – Operations and Administration

Subsequent phases will be scheduled on an ongoing basis.

Project Status: In Progress

Web Strategy Project – Recruitment

UBSC and the Division of Enrollment worked with consultant Mighty Citizen to conduct a comprehensive web audit of key recruitment web pages, including discovery sessions, content audits and user research. This project aimed to create a more user-friendly website experience while supporting the goals and tasks of key UNT audiences — current and prospective students, parents, faculty, staff, alumni and the wider community — as well as UNT’s recruitment goals.

The scope of this project included the following websites:

UNT Academics
Admissions
Registrar
Financial Aid

Key Challenges Identified

Siloed approach to architecture and content management
Many audiences, few clear pathways
Copy-heavy pages lacking consistent, modularized architecture
Lack of dynamic content entries
Differing content management resources and expertise across departments
Complex, overwhelming processes for audiences
Lack of beginner-friendly content

Recommendations

Bridge the silos and create a central, goal-based strategy

Move subdomains to directories on UNT.edu
Organize sections around user goals
Create a Content Governance Plan
Remove and prevent duplicate content

Create consistent, user-friendly page layouts and modules

Create section-specific page layouts
Standardize interior layouts and modules across sections
Reword and adapt content to new layouts and modules
Create dynamic, structured content entries

Prioritize and support key audiences

Prioritize audiences
Copy and messaging: assume no prior knowledge
Create tips and advice videos
Support follow-up tasks

Project Status: Complete

Web Strategy Project: Retention Focus for College Sites

UBSC will partner with key campus stakeholders and Mighty Citizen to develop an information architecture strategy that creates an optimized user experience and structure for a core set of college websites with a focus on retention. The outcome will be web strategy recommendations that will serve as a baseline roadmap for all colleges as well as a Content Governance plan for the university.

Project Goals

Understand the state of the primary college websites, their content inventory, navigation and architecture.
Design user-friendly website structures for each website, with intuitive navigation that can be implemented by the UNT team.
Develop a Content Governance Plan that simplifies our approach, enforces consistency and justifies the need for a streamlined content process.

Project Status: Launched Summer 2021

Funnelback and Program Finder

Funnelback is a site search solution that comes with an intuitive admin interface designed for configuration and reporting. Funnelback facilitates fast, accurate search and delivers an in-depth understanding of what is working and what is not for better decision making. It allows UNT to prioritize search strategy with engaging user experience and user-centric information techniques to provide customized recommendations. The architecture offers a unified search engine with the capability to bring together organization-wide, digital content while delivering a single view to end-users. Funnelback's Program Finder allows prospects to easily browse, compare and research UNT’s core offerings.

Features include:

Contextual and faceted navigation filtering
Tunable ranking algorithm
Dynamic content presentation
Auto-suggest search terms
Metadata quality reporting
Analytics suite
Ability to compare or shortlist programs
Intuitive admin interface for reporting and configuration

Project Kickoff: Fall 2021

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