Our Services

How We Work

Find out how we begin an electronic project and follow it through to the end.

New Media Design and Development

Whatever your electronic publication needs, we can help. Our repertoire of skills includes:

creating and implementing Web site redesign
Web site creation
Web surveys
HTML e-mails and newsletters
PowerPoint presentations
Web maintenance
content management solutions

In terms of Web site development, we know that creating a high-quality, usable, accessible, and effective Web site requires careful organization and categorization of information (information architecture), well-written content, and a clean, visually appealing interactive design. In addition, our team will include new technologies where appropriate. We can confer with you to determine the best way to use technologies such as Flash animation, Weblogs (blogs), and Rich Site Summary (RSS) in your electronic publications.

The Creative Services new media team provides all of this, as well as programming and usability testing to ensure that the final product meets the needs of the target audience and your unit.

Information Architecture

One of the keys to a Web site’s success is the careful organization and categorization of the information—also known as information architecture. Let us help you create a Web site that is a breeze to navigate!

A well-planned and well-executed information architecture is the first step in the design of a Web site. Through interviews with stakeholders and research, the information architect develops a wireframe and tests it with target audiences. The information architect

clarifies the mission and vision for the site by balancing the needs of the owners with the needs of the audiences
determines what content the site will contain
determines how users will find information by defining the site's organization, navigation, and labeling
considers how the site will accommodate change and growth

Once the successful architecture is in place, the Web site can be further developed by writers, designers, and programmers. The information architect collaborates throughout the project with writers to develop the architecture further as the Web site progresses; with graphic designers to ensure that the design supports information delivery; and with programmers to ensure usability, accessibility, and compliance.

Interactive Design

Let our interactive design team add some excitement to your electronic publications through the use of Flash animation, interactive maps, audio players, online forms and surveys, and more.

You can see the work of our interactive designers on numerous individual Web sites for campuses, schools, departments, and many special projects and programs. Check out the following examples:

IU School of Health, Physical Education, and Recreation
National Science Olympiad (Webby Award, CASE V Award, and W3 Silver Award winner)
IU Life Sciences (CASE V Award and W3 Gold Award winner)
IU School of Music
IU Bloomington Department of Chemistry (CASE V Award winner)
IU Bloomington Department of Religious Studies (CASE V Award winner)

Programming

We understand the importance of creating sites that are browser and platform independent and accessible to all users. We create Web sites that are fully accessible via all Web browsers and platforms including PDA and text-only browsers. The graphic design displays consistently across all major browsers, including Windows browsers (Internet Explorer 5+, Netscape 6+, Mozilla/Firefox) and Macintosh browsers (Safari, Mozilla/Firefox, Netscape 6+).

Most sites are developed in XHTML 1.0 transitional, with display controlled by Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), using SHTML technology for managing rotating content, sharing common page elements, and evoking CGI scripts if needed. JavaScript and Flash may be used to enhance the Web site’s navigation and/or graphic design.

Web sites comply with ADA Section 508 accessibility standards.

The new media team recommends hosting Web sites on the IU central servers, but will work within any server environment.