After more than 750 hours of research, design and programming, the Marriott School of Management launched a new web site Monday created and built by students in the School of Accountancy and Information Systems.
“The site is innovative and on the leading edge of what’s current in web design,” said Owen Cherrington, director of the Master of Information Systems Management (MISM) program for the Marriott School. “I believe the students have created something that will be a great tribute to the Marriott School.”
Working under the direction of the Marriott School Public Relations office and Nina Whitehead, a web specialist, the students researched more than 150 business organization and school sites before creating the new look for the web site. Using the latest technologies available, the students integrated the best applications from their research to build the new site.
“We said from the start that we would create the most innovative and cutting edge things as possible,” said Elton Orme, a second-year MISM student, from Squirrel, Idaho. “We didn’t limit ourselves to what we thought we were capable of doing. If we didn’t know how to do something for our web site, we researched until we knew how to do it.”
The new site is better organized to provide its users with easy navigation to find the information they desire. Its advantages include high-quality graphics, a pop-out menu structure, a site search and index, all providing greater accessibility.
The project began last fall with a challenge from Marriott School Dean Ned Hill to create the most-innovative and user-friendly business school site on the Internet. Students, faculty, administrative staff and alumni all had input on the site’s design and construction.
The site’s construction is based on research performed throughout the past year on the service needs of the Marriott School’s target publics: students, prospective students, faculty, alumni, contributors, and LDS Church members.
The launched site is only the first phase of changes to be made to the Marriott School’s Internet presence. The second phase, expected next spring, will be the addition of a large data-base to manage and update the site's content, reducing time and efforts necessary to maintain the site. The final phase, expected next fall, will be a site customized according to the informational needs of each user.
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Writer: Peter Carr