Auburn Facilities Management

University Department Website

Working with large scale universities like Auburn University have their own hurdles and challenges, but over the years, we’ve been able to be flexible with the Office of Communications and Marketing and alter our development flow as different standards and styles change. Each department has different priorities and goals, and our ability to be malleable has directly affected the success of these projects.

Custom Web App Connections

Auburn Facilities Management is one of the largest departments at Auburn University, and their infrastructure reflects that. With a bevy of existing custom web apps that they had developed in house, we designed an HTML/CSS export of our custom header for their developers to apply to their apps. Along with the vast sitemap and interior pages, we wanted to make sure everything felt consistent and cohesive.

Pushing Design Limits

In order to get designs approved for University projects, we have to make sure that we’re adhering to the OCM styles and standards dictated to us. Over the years, we’ve been able to find ways to showcase different design ideas while maintaining both the letter and spirit of the University-approved styles, and this Facilities website is a great example of that.

Facilities Management Website Development Process

Research and analysis.

Looking at other facilities departments across other high-profile universities, we were able to identify a few different design and functional ideas that we wanted to implement our own variation of. In conjunction with the priorities that AUFM dictated to us, we were able to create a functional design flow that is both aesthetically pleasing and functional to the user.

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Reducing   clutter within the site.

In order to make sure the Facilities user can easily navigate throughout the robust sitemap, we designed a variety of custom function and design elements to make sure the user never felt lost or cluttered. Whether it was an idea as simple as breadcrumbs, a standardized multiple-row menu, or reducing the content on a given page, we made sure the streamline the content flow as much as possible.

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Making  educated decisions.

With as large of a sitemap the Facilities website has, we knew that the user would potentially find navigation confusing. By using the existing behavioral flow and reworking the sitemap of the website with parent pages, child pages, and more, we were able to give the user a more effective experience. Using data to make educated decisions has a direct impact in the bounce rate, session duration, and overall user engagement on the website.

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