I just finished the Creative Writing Department Website (CRW) for Austin Community College.  This Is the second site I’ve now completed for ACC, having also designed and developed their Foreign Language Department Website (FOLA) and I thought I’d share my experiences.  Both sites are currently live and if you haven’t checked em out yet,  I do recommend that you do so.

First off I just want to say how delightful all the faculty has been to work with over at ACC.  The School has grown so fast and is now the Nation’s largest community college.  Despite all the work, all the teacher are clearly there for the love of learning and seem very excited to watch as their resources and budgets finally start to catch up to the volume of students they now educate.  That is where I come in, hired through the Arts and Humanities Department, I work directly with faculty to create new online identities and sites for their departments.  It’s a great collaboration, the faculty have tons of content (usually poorly organized in the old websites), lots of ideas, and a general desire to have their online identity improve significantly.

Both sites required a complete restructuring of the information, brand new design, and custom graphics.  In order to maximize compatibility for browsers and devices, both sites were built standard compliant and search engine 0ptimized (SEO).  The FOLA Site had a huge amount content which was complimented by redundant navigation system with multiple paths to important information.  In addition to common features, the FOLA site has a really fun index page with a dynamic map and tons of lightbox enabled photos running down the right and left sidebars.  For the CRW site I went for a really clean look and tried to express the spirit of creative writing.  I took an info-graphic approach and made a custom JQUERY slide show of students writing around Austin, and integrated the department slogan right into that.

Check em out, tell me what you think.

Creative Writing Department Website: http://www.austincc.edu/crw

Foreign Language Department Website: http://www.austincc.edu/fola

Tagged: ACC, Austin Community College, college, design, FOLA, Infographic, JQUERY, slideshow, standard compliant, website