Brown.edu Website Rebuild

The Brown.edu website rebuild project is a multi-year effort to create a modern, accessible and cohesive web presence for Brown.  

Guided by the overarching goal of a unified web presence offering an outstanding, best-in-class user experience for Brown’s millions of digital constituents, the final, operational phase of the project is to finish sequentially rebuilding the University's 300+ official websites in the Drupal Cloud content management system (CMS).

If your department's website rebuild hasn't yet started, time invested in reviewing, reorganizing and rewriting your web content will pay off in the future. If your current webpages are in the best possible shape, rebuilding them into the new version of the content management system will be easier and more efficient.

Prepare for your departmental web rebuild

Project Accomplishments

Accomplishments of the rebuild project include:

  • A visual design that is beautiful, compelling and usable.
  • A logical, easy-to-understand navigation structure that reduced the fragmented nature of Brown’s web presence.
  • A unified, easy-to-use Drupal Cloud CMS built on flexible and modular design components. 
  • Compliance with federal requirements for accessibility.
  • Increased capacity and functionality for units at Brown to showcase the distinctiveness of their programs.
  • Improved integration with calendars, maps, social media and other platforms.
  • Simplified support, security and technical maintenance of the site.

Community Involvement

The Brown Web Advisory Group (BWAG) represented the needs of the institution to the project’s executive sponsors and the Core Project Team during the project's initial phases.

BWAG included representatives from major stakeholder departments and student organizations across campus, including the Division of Advancement, the Division of Biology and Medicine, the Division of Campus Life, Computing & Information Services, the Office of the Dean of the College, the Office of the Vice President for Research, the Office of the Provost, the Graduate School, the Graduate Student Council, the Brown University Library, the School of Engineering, the School of Professional Studies, the School of Public Health, the Staff Advisory Council, the Swearer Center, the Office of College Admission, the Undergraduate Council of Students and the Office of University Communications.

The Brown Web Advisory Group:

  • Participated in the final phases of identification and selection of a digital agency to partner with Brown on the redesign project. This included attending presentations from finalists in the RFP process and ranking selections.
  • Participated in discovery sessions, surveys, focus groups and workshops with the selected agency partner at the project’s outset.
  • Examined key deliverables (e.g., information architecture or visual design concepts) from Brown’s agency partner and provided feedback to the Core Project Team.
  • Advised and supported the Core Project Team on the design, development and implementation of the new public-facing website for Brown.
  • The Brown Web Advisory Group reviewed policies, standards and guidelines related to the University’s website and consulted on matters related to the governance and long-term sustainability of brown.edu.