Institutionnel
UNIL website gets a facelift
UNIL's website has undergone a major makeover, with a new, sober design. All in blue, it offers Internet users simplified, eco-responsible navigation.
Sustainable. Innovative. Sober. There's no shortage of adjectives to describe the new website of the University of Lausanne (UNIL). For the user, the big news is an eco-responsible default mode, with heavily compressed bluish images that are only loaded when they appear on the screen. However, if you wish, you can revert to a more conventional, but more energy-consuming, mode.
Another change is that videos, maps, podcasts and all media are no longer downloaded automatically. The stated aim is to limit resource consumption. With fewer, compressed photos and lighter source code, this redesign leads to greater efficiency while aiming for energy sobriety.
Putting audiences at the center
The number of pages has been reduced from some 3,600 to 1,200, simplifying searches. The experience will also be made easier thanks to a consistent design across the entire institution. “The aim is to unify UNIL's image so that it is recognizable at first glance,” explains Rémi Georges, webmaster and web project manager at Unicom.
Thanks to a survey and exercise carried out among users in 2022, themes were identified and used to build the architecture of the new site. These six sections, known as rubrics, are used to classify information according to the visitor's logic.
A three-phase program
Between August and October, no fewer than 4.5 million pages were viewed and more than 550,000 active users passed through all UNIL sites. “We are an international university, open to the world. Having a very light interface means that information is accessible to as many people as possible,” emphasizes Novella Bellonia, Unicom's Digital Communications Manager.
The central site, covering the Rectorate and service pages, nearly 80% of which have been migrated, is now accessible in French and English. The next two stages of this redesign process, run by Unicom and the IT Centre, will focus on faculties and the intranet.
Choosing an eco-responsible site represents a strong message from the Rectorate. “With this move, UNIL is making a commitment today to encourage this reflection on values,” notes Novella Bellonia.