USC Center for Education Policy Analysis IDA project Web site

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Project: USC Center for Education Policy Analysis IDA project Web site

www.usc.edu/dept/chepa/IDApays/
Launched on March 24, 2009
Education / Schools / Universities, Education, Universities, Clean Programming

The Center for Higher Education Policy Analysis (CHEPA) at the University of Southern California conducted a three-year study on the potential and challenges of Individual Development Accounts (IDAs) to help low-income students obtain access and be successful in college. The IDA project web site was in need of a redesign in order to streamline site structure, better organize a considerable amount of content, and increase flexibility to appeal to an audience of different interest groups. The new design needed to comply with the existing branding of the Rossier School of Education and USC web site familiies, but have a distinctive look of its own. The site launch also needed to coincide with the conclusion of the research project in March 2009.

The first stage of the project was to analyze the existing content and recommend ways to improve organizational structure. The old site was difficult to navigate and with the new structure information is now more accessible with the site navigation streamlined and simplified. A customized search was created to allow users to search within the IDA site itself without getting drawn into the larger USC site structure. The design of the site is based on the basic template of the USC Rossier School web site with a custom layout and icons created by Hop Studios.