Canvas at Penn State Website Redesign

Project Details

When the Canvas at Penn State website needed to be redesigned, I immediately volunteered to participate in the project. While I initially joined the project simply to consult on training-related content, I quickly found myself driving the majority of the effort due to a combination of factors including the original project lead’s happy news that his first child was born. Luckily, the truly stellar team that was assembled for the project was very flexible, and we managed to completely redesign the site on a very tight timeline, launching the new version before the first of January, 2017. For my role in the project, I helped prepare for and conduct user testing (focus groups), led most project meetings post-kickoff, collaborated to create user personas, engaged in a multitude of project management activities, brainstormed design and content ideas, and provided detailed feedback on all mockups and drafts. I also collaborated with the communications team to create or revise most of the content on the site, and provided 1-1 training and support to teach the comm. team how to post and edit content themselves.

Timeline

August 1, 2016 – January 1, 2017

Purpose and Objectives

Team Members

• Me (Kris Benefield, Training)
• Derick Burns (TLT Communications)
• Margaret Moses (TLT Communications)
• Megan Folmar (IT Communications)
• Mike Brooks (Outreach)
• Tom Wilson (Outreach)
• Steve Nelson (Outreach)
• CeCe Merkel (Outreach)
• Stevie Rocco (Dutton Institute)
• Matt Mooney (Smeal College of Business)
• Terry O’heron (*Project Sponsor, TLT)
• Kate Domico (*Project Sponsor, Outreach)