With the redesign of the website almost complete Skyline’s fresh look website redesign committee only has to sit back and test it. This semester Skyline’s Fresh Look Website Redesign committee will be letting the students use the new website design it has been working on for a year.

What this means is that the new website will be up and running, but at the same time the old website will be available for reference, somewhat like Facebook, until it released its new design yesterday.

It’s a way to launch the new website that insures that the school has what it needs, according to Shelly Hausman, Communications Manager for Skyline College’s Department of Development, Marketing, and Public Relations.

The website redesign project was started with planning in the Fall ’07 semester with the goals of organizing information in a new way, and also to create a more user-friendly site. The project committee consisted of members who represented student, faculty, staff, and administrators, and is now coming to an end, with templating and implementation.

“Input from the college community continues to be collected through the ‘Web Site Redesign Project eSuggestion Box’ on www.skylinecollege.edu” according to the Fresh Look Web Site Redesign Project Summary.

“Throughout the summer we’ve been working on template design,” Hausman said. “This will wrap up at the end of the semester; it’s a year long process.”

Skyline student Athena Hilt-Silva, 18, likes the current website.

“I mostly use it for my classes to see grades, upcoming homework/tests,” Hilt-Silva said. However, another Skyline student who asked to be known only as Jason said he didn’t get much use out of the website. “I never really find any need to use it” said Jason. “Websmart requires you to register through them,” so he only uses that and a college catalog to find his classes. “If I was more involved in different activities then I’d hit up the site.”

ASSC Senator Raydan Alhubaishy, 18, who worked with the committee in order to find what students want in a website, said students found the website too difficult.

Hilt-Silva agreed with Alhubaishy and believed that a more navigable website would make it easier on others. Hilt-Silva suggested that the website should add a way to view majors and prerequisite classes.

“People just want it to be easy” Alhubaishy said. “[The new website will be] really strong, really professional. We basically included everything a student needs; same website minus a couple parts.”

The new parts basically make the website easier to navigate from any page, according to Alhubaishy. A new search bar at the top of every page aids in this.

“It’s exciting to have this opportunity to redesign,” Shelly Hausman said. She thinks now is the right time to change, but doesn’t believe it will ever be completely done. “You can always think of things [to add]. You don’t want to see the same thing every time.”