This is no small undertaking for a district of our size with a website of more than 17,000 pages. Throughout the 2021-22 school year, we made subtle changes and cleaned up older content. Once we concluded the research portion of the project we collected information and feedback from various stakeholders.

After conducting the survey, our primary goal was to create a more user-centric and responsive website for our families to access across all platforms and devices, including a more mobile responsive layout. Specifically, we wanted to focus on making it easier for families to locate the information they need when they need it without having to resort to the search bar. 

Much of the look and information on the district and school homepages directly result from our stakeholder surveys. Families indicated they wanted easy access to calendars, forms and contact information, an in-depth look into the website’s usage and the most accessed pages via Google Analytics date provided the redesign framework.

We have reorganized information on the CPS homepage and added 10 global icons above the fold to the right of the rotating main image. The new home page also features a tabbed content organizer to help families find information quickly. This mobile-friendly format enables users to see additional content without leaving the homepage.

All pages also include a high-contrast toggle, designed to aid users with vision impairments. When turned on, this toggle enables users to switch to a black and white, high-contrast version of the website. The website also includes built-in translation tools in a variety of languages to translate every page instantly.

Users will start to see messages and changes on the website starting the week of July 25. We plan to move the district main site first and have the changes complete by the end of July or early August. The high school sites will be second, the middle school sites third and the elementary sites fourth.