SCAR
School of Conflict resolution and Analysis
GOALS: S-CAR Courses
The School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution (S-CAR) is another academic department of George Mason University. We have been proudly serving George Mason University since the last 5 years.
S-CAR wanted to re-engineer their existing website by incorporating a new graphic design, updated information architecture and layout that is able to effectively disseminate S-CAR’s intellectual capital. The system needed to be user friendly and usable by nontechnical staff at S-CAR. Nontechnical S-CAR staff should be able to post new content to the website, perform editorial functions. The new S-CAR website should allow a visitor to find content along multiple dimensions including: by author, by topic, by type (journal article, video, audio, etc.) In addition to a friendly user interface, the new site should also be search engine friendly.
Below are the main features of the S-CAR website implemented by Xululabs:
Solution:
COURSES:
http://scar.gmu.edu/course/conf-101
Xululabs performed a thorough analysis of the current site structure of S-CAR. The courses were built on a vast list of topics. In addition to the traditional form of listing courses with their details, Xululabs came up with a complete course management system for the S-CAR website. The courses roster was the first step in aligning the courses page. It listed all the available courses sorted by their respective codes. A jQuery slider with an Ajax performance helped in quick page jumps to next available list of courses. Clicking on a code would lead to the details of the course along with the current and previous offerings of the different semesters on the same topic, making it a highly organized and interlinked approach to course searches.
An efficient and strongly streamlined process of showing relevant courses, books and teachers is the core strategy applied for the S-CAR website. It is a rigorous method of cross selling the books and tagging them effectively, lest the hassle of going through various topics at hand. A visually enhanced Web 2.0 look and feel provided a smooth browsing session for all the site users. All the information is dynamically generated to keep ease of controlling maximum data.
RESEARCHER PROFILES:
http://scar.gmu.edu/marc-gopin
A detailed analysis was done by Xululabs on the needed profile information of the researchers of the S-CAR. As per the conclusions, the researcher page was designed with the up-to-date materials including, researcher details, biography, picture and contact details. The page was further divided into segments to showcase a detailed version of the awards, events, presentations, media, etc., that were directly linked with the researcher information. The collective data was displayed in a user-friendly page layout. The social media links were integrated on the researcher profile page corresponding to an easy and direct access to their profiles on other websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, etc.
The recent activities and the featured contents from the researcher’s publications made an important part of this dynamic page. It helped the site users locate all the relevant information of any member’s profile in a convenient and complete manner. The CMS allowed easier access to the profile page with the admin able to make dynamic updates.
EVENTS and PRESENTATIONS:
http://scar.gmu.edu/event/presentation-practice-program-point-of-view
Events and presentations are a regular feature of the S-CAR website. The constant information updates regarding latest happenings and events on the campus or off the campus are fully integrated by Xululabs on the Events and Presentations Roster for the S-CAR website. Carefully designed with a fine layout representing all the associated and current information needs of any event are well structured on this page. The event date and location along with the similar topics of interest are tagged dynamically. This strategy allows a quick view of the related information.
The presenters’ details and the other events by these researchers are also allocated substantial control on this page. A one stop solution that helps the site users to get the right information at the right time with easier site navigation and page layout. It also allows rich content based events to be created. This includes media of type video, documents.
Homepage Design:
Xululabs designed the homepage of the S-CAR website in an interactive and user-friendly layout. It fulfilled the core mission and vision of the S-CAR website in the form of a visually enhanced and featured content rich page. All this is achieved by the showcase of essential information on the homepage in the form of a carousal window showing teasers; latest events section; news updates and featured publications displayed in a well structured format. Newsletter subscription form and the social media integration provide state-of-the-art facility to the S-CAR website.
The main page of S-CAR is also responsible for providing convenient navigation points to other regions of the website. This creates a strong brand identity for S-CAR and conveys its message effectively to its audience. The foundation of the S-CAR website pages are built on the Drupal CMS allowing easier updates to the entire website contents. All the data is dynamically generated and well handled via its CMS. The consistent look and feel is applied throughout the website for an engaging user experience.
Topics Directory page:
The Topics Directory Page enumerates all the topics that S-CAR content addresses. Each topic is a link to the corresponding topical portal page. The general structure of this topic page contains components, such as, the list of all the topics at S-CAR; each topic is a link to the corresponding topical portal page; topics are grouped under topic categories.
The topics are also categorized by regions and theories, thus providing full and easy access to further detailed information.
News/Media page:
Xululabs built the News page to cover all the various aspects of media portrayal of S-CAR. It contains embedded videos, radio broadcasts, audio recordings list, and television appearances. This page showcases content rich information in a congenial environment. The most active publications and the podcasts can easily be accessed via the news page. It also displays the blog postings and latest press releases for direct page links to each of them. Such an interactive display of information is done dynamically via the Drupal CMS. The respective researcher and author names are also shown and linked to their profiles on this page. A clean navigation system helps in establishing direct links to the required information on the website.
