"Our strategic direction and core research areas have evolved and it's time to reflect that progress in our online presence," said Stanford Woods Institute Executive Director Debbie Drake Dunne. "We wanted a more intuitive website experience that makes our work accessible to the scholarly community, the campus at large and the many stakeholders looking for solutions-oriented research when making decisions about the environment and sustainability."

The New Experience

Most obvious to visitors will be the new homepage design, anchored by a high-impact photo, simplified colors and clean lines intended to reduce clutter and focus the eye. The site is accessed through a new top-rail navigation system. Click on a topic and clickable drop-down windows open to reveal menus for Research, Educating Leaders, Get Involved, Publications, News & Events and About.

This navigation system is global, so wherever you are on the site you can view any category instantly by simply clicking on the category name and triggering the dropdown menu. Now visitors will be able to quickly view the breadth and depth of the Stanford Woods Institute's interdisciplinary research, programs and community.

Other key updates include:

• A streamlined design and organizational structure that allows users to quickly navigate the site by our core research areas;
• Filters for specific types of content - such as news, events, publications and faculty profiles - by research area and affiliations within Stanford;
• Faculty and researcher profiles that can be fully sorted by type, school and research area;
• Optimization for viewing the website on tablet computers like the Ipad, and
• A new Frequently Asked Questions page and a history of the Ward W. and Priscilla B. Woods Institute for the Environment, recalling its origins and the people who were instrumental to its founding and success.

These changes to the site were based on feedback from our community, external interviews as part of our strategic planning process and an analysis of how visitors use the site. While a majority of the previous content from former Woods website has been migrated to the new platform, some content has been archived and some will be re-uploaded or re-linked to the site once it is live and fully tested.

We expect that many of you will have questions and encourage you to share them along with any other feedback to [email protected]. In the coming months we will be refining the website to ensure it meets the needs of our research community and the diverse audiences for their work. Please enjoy the new features, and let us know what you think.