Auckland University site becomes easier to navigate

By PETER GRIFFIN

The newest batch of fresh-faced students beginning their tertiary studies at the University of Auckland can look forward to navigating a radically improved website this year.

A three-stage revamp of the site is under way that will aim to open up the university's vast range of academic resources to the community, streamline navigation for students and staff, and include e-commerce facilities.

The university has recruited Auckland-based website integrator Straker Interactive to undertake back-end and interface improvements to the site, which receives a huge amount of local and international traffic.

Chris Robb, the university's project director of internet development, said a lot of valuable content on the site was not getting the exposure it deserved and navigation needed urgent attention.

"With 2000 academics at the university, there's a huge amount of knowledge, books being published, courses being taught, but we're not getting out there and communicating it to the community and industry."

Each of the university's departments will have online resources and course information linking to databases of research information.

The university's numerous clubs and associations and student magazine Craccum will also have a stronger presence on the site.

Animations and video from the Arts Department will go online as part of the new site, which will retain the www.auckland.ac domain name.

Grant Straker, managing director of Straker Interactive, said Windows 2000 Server, ColdFusion and SQL Server would be the main platforms employed in the site redesign.

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