Website Template Design Upgrade

We are pleased to announce that with financial support from the Office of the President and UW Board of Trustees, we will be releasing new website templates in 2025! This site is your go-to resource for this design upgrade. Our goal is to make the transition smooth and empower site editors with new, user-friendly templates that are modern, accessible and consistent with UW’s branding. Explore the upgrade details, review your migration options and stay tuned for resources and training to support you through this transition!

The upgrade will include:

This is one of the most exciting parts of the upgrade—seeing how UW’s future pages will look! Hundreds of hours have gone into creating these designs, creating a modern look along with the improvements site editors have been asking for, like in-page navigation. These templates are still in development, but you can view browser proofs to get a sneak peek at what’s coming.

In the meantime, here’s how you can start preparing:

• View the Upgrades: Familiarize yourself with the new features that will come with these templates.
• Explore Migration Options: Understand how your pages will transition to the new designs.
• Attend Live Learning Sessions: Get special guidance and tips to prepare for the upgrade.
• Stay Updated: Watch for UW email updates on progress and timelines.

Consistency & Ease-of-Use

With the new designs, all new pages will be fully templatized, making it easier than ever for site editors. Instead of building pages from scratch, you’ll be able to select from pre-formatted templates that already have all the snippets & components added. You’ll simply choose the template that fits your needs, add your content and photos, and take it live. This streamlined process will significantly reduce the time needed to create and maintain pages, allowing you to focus on your top priorities.

What about my current pages, how will those look?

Check out the Migration section on this page to learn how your existing pages will transition to the new design.

Rebuilding Main Index Pages

Site editors who choose the Option 2 of the migration experience will receive priority page rebuild support and we will recreate your main index page for you! We'll select the template that best suites your need, use best practices for content creation using your existing page information, and deliver you a new index page during the review process that you'll have access to edit and maintain. This could save you hours of extra work so we strongly encourage you to consider choosing the second migration option.

Milanote - Page Content Planning Tool!

If you choose to rebuild your pages (Option 2 of the migration), you’ll get access to Milanote, a content planning tool that helps you organize text, images, and other elements for the new templates. Milanote provides word counts, photo sizes, and content suggestions and allows you to save your work in an exportable format. Access to Milanote will be free for site editors!

Stay tuned for more details on how you can gain access to Milanote!

Live Learning Sessions

Our Live Learning Sessions will provide targeted support throughout the design upgrade. Hosted by the Institutional Marketing team, these virtual sessions cover key topics with interactive examples to help you prepare your pages. Sign up and attend for a chance to win prizes from the University Store (interoffice mail delivery on-campus only). The schedule may update with new events, so bookmark it and check back often!

Trained Preferred Vendors

With support from BOT and the President’s office, we’re currently in the process of training a select group of independent freelancers who your department can directly hire to assist with page migration or rebuilds. These pre-approved vendors will be fully trained inside the CMS and UW brand resources. They’ll be available for departments wishing to hire external help for web projects, but departments must handle contract negotiations and follow UW procurement policies. More details on hiring these pre-approved vendors will be available in early 2025 so that you have plenty of time to go through the procurement process before your pages are ready to be reviewed/rebuilt inside our test site.

More details on how to find and hire a preferred vendor will be released soon!

Option 1

Direct Migration to Matching Design Layout

In this option, your pages will be automatically transferred to the new sandbox site using designs that most closely match your current layout. Your pages' layouts will remain relatively similar to how they are to do, but the look and feel will change to the new designs. Site editors will review each page to ensure content accuracy and make adjustments if needed.

Responsibilities of site editors:

• Review each migrated page.
• Attend open labs or use resources for fixes or rebuilding if needed.
• Report any major issues.

Who would benefit most from this option:

• Site editors with limited time.
• Sites with mostly text and image content.
• Sites that don't use a large amount of components.
• Sites with over 30 pages.

Potential drawbacks:

• Design changes may result in pages looking different than before.
• Limited flexibility to add new snippets and components to a migrated page.
• Some components may not transfer seamlessly, requiring additional edits.
• If an undesirable migration outcome occurs, you may be required to rebuild your page.

How long will I have to review my pages?

Site editors will have approximately eight (8) weeks to review their migrated pages. We’re working hard to make this process smoother than the 2023 CMS conversion by closely matching designs to minimize the time needed for adjustments. While design migrations may have some unexpected issues, we’re prepared to assist and keep the process as straightforward as possible.