Tag: UF T4

Fresh, Accessible, and Flexible: UF’s New Web Templates

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UF Information Technology (UFIT) collaborated with the Office of Strategic Communications and Marketing (SCM) to launch the new UF web theme in September 2023. The theme, known as Mercury, features modular and component-based templates, creating a modernized look aligned with UF’s branding strategy and accessibility policy. The components of each template are flexible, allowing users to easily adopt the theme.

This project began in June 2021 with UF partnering with the vendor Stamats. UFIT’s Web Services team serves as SCM’s technical support and worked with them on the web refresh efforts. The new template reflects three years of planning, cooperation, and building out the new look.

“Since the release of the Mercury theme, we’ve already seen several units successfully implement it,” SCM’s Director of Marketing and Web Strategy Ana Mertz said. “It is exciting to see so many units embrace the new templates. Our teams worked hard to ensure our campus community had as many resources as possible to facilitate adoption.”

While implementation of the templates is not required for campus units, it’s highly encouraged as the Mercury theme provides brand continuity and meets current accessibility standards.

“Based on the requests for meetings to discuss migrating into the new theme, I am optimistic that campus wide adoption is forthcoming,” UFIT Associate Director and Manager of Web Services Kimbley Standifer said.

Visit the UF Brand Center’s ‘Website Templates’ page to find information about the template, available platforms, and the required documentation to use them. If you have any questions, please fill out the contact form at the bottom of the page. UFIT also has additional resources about using the new template available on https://webservices.it.ufl.edu/mercury-theme/.

Rebranding of the UF Homepage

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UFIT enabled the Office of Strategic Communications & Marketing (SCM) to lift the University of Florida’s web presence. The full rebranding of the top-level domain (i.e., the UF homepage), referred to as Tier 1 of the project, went live on April 11. SCM initiated the www.ufl.edu redesign project with the agency Stamats and UFIT in June 2021.

“UFIT’s leadership and staff were instrumental in providing technical insights and support for a successful site migration for UF,” said Ana Perez-Olave, associate director of digital marketing. “The collaboration between our two offices was very fruitful, and SCM looks forward to the continued partnership with UFIT throughout the Tier 2 (templates for colleges) and Tier 3 (templates for departments, centers, and business units) phases of the project.”

Approximately 22 members of UFIT are involved in the project, including web developers and designers, along with infrastructure staff involved in load testing and managing the web servers.  While continuing to support clients in TERMINALFOUR, Web Services staff adjusted their techniques and learned new skills to prepare the required infrastructure.  To date, staff have logged more than 4,000 hours to the project. As soon as Tier 1 went live, UFIT focused development energies on the Tier 2 and Tier 3 project deliverables. Anyone needing support with their T4 environment, T4 training, or who has a question about web standards, may use the https://webservices.it.ufl.edu/contact/ form.

Training Available for Setting Up T4 Website

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Looking for best practices to help you with TERMINALFOUR (T4) site setup? UFIT developed self-guided training that campus power users can refer to whenever they need to refresh their skills: Best Practices for T4 Site Set Up.

The Best Practices training explains how to stand up a T4 site using the official UF template. This training is designed to give power users a deeper understanding of the TERMINALFOUR environment components, including page layouts, page content, and site configuration. It also enables viewers to become familiar with UF digital standards for the web and how to apply best practices for managing their website in TERMINALFOUR. A prerequisite for taking Best Practices is to have completed the Web Developer (Technical) UF_ITT332_CUR training. Visit the Getting Started with T4 to learn more, including what ARS security roles are needed to manage content in UF’s T4 environment.

UFIT has several online and instructor-led TERMINALFOUR trainings available, including one focused on managing the ‘contributor’ and ‘moderator’ roles. Visit UF’s myTraining site and search on “T4” to see a list of T4 offerings. Anyone with questions about T4 training or maintaining your site is welcome to email webmaster@ufl.edu for assistance.