Law school touts new Web site

The UNC School of Law’s Web site just received a makeover.

After 18 months and $30,000 in development, the long-thought-out Web site has been completely revamped. The new site provides new search features such as the tag cloud, a redesigned physical appearance and more organized data.

“The old site was difficult to navigate and find information quickly, which was a primary driving factor for the creation of our new one,” said Doug Edmunds, assistant dean for information technology for the law school.

“We wanted to present to the world a clearer picture of who we are and the great work we do.”

The new site is designed to more clearly demonstrate the large amount of public service students undertake as well as the extraordinary caliber of teachers at the school, he added.

“I’m especially excited about some of the new features we now have, one of which is the tag cloud,” Edmunds said.

The tag cloud contains a list of several legal interest areas, such as corporate law and public interest.

A click on one of the interest areas leads to a page of aggregated information spread throughout the entire site, such as courses, student organizations and faculty research interests.

 “It is really a neat way to see all that the school has to offer, including all the extras the school has to provide,” Edmunds said.

The new site also includes a “10 reasons to choose Carolina law” link which highlights the law school’s strong points in a user-friendly manner.

Edmunds, alongside other staff members, researched many local and national design firms for the project.

They finally decided on IE Design and Communications, a firm that offered to do the project for half the cost of many other firms, said Katie Bowler, the assistant dean for communications for the law school.

“We were looking to create a Web site that would provide clear information primarily for prospective students for the School of Law,” Bowler said.

“We spent a long time looking at the paths students would follow when researching our school and we wanted our site to be more in line with the great image of the school.”

UNC is also in the process of redesigning its main Web page to better highlight the stories of the University.

The University also recently launched one.unc.edu, which focuses on explaining how UNC interacts with the rest of the state.



Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.