We have a fresh new look online and we’re pretty excited to share it with you! Made by our friends at Normative Design, here are a few notable elements that we think you’ll like. Cue the tour bus!
Friendly and modern design with a dash of practicality. Outfitted with the familiar elements you’ve come to recognize ORION by, the new design language includes “a really approachable and modern typeface that embodies all the character treats that makes a font more legible on various screen resolutions,” says designer Carol Taylor. “The font family Neue Frutiger has been optimized for on-screen use and is thus a great choice for the reading on this new responsive site.”
Responsive at the ready. We like to talk about the importance of and imagine a BYOD world with no digital divides. So it makes sense that our new site would be compatible with whichever screen you’re in front of: tablet, mobile, desktop, and maybe even the newest wearable device. With the ability to view our website on any device, don’t forget to sign up for ORION updates so that you can keep up on the latest in innovation, on any device of your choice.
Simplified navigation. “Our recommendation, to better define content relationships and ensure navigation patterns are consistent and predictable for users, is to simplify the header navigation to four primary sections,” explains Peter Last, also a designer at Normative. Why? So that you’ll be able to explore or find exactly what you’re looking for in a shorter amount of time. Don’t you love technology?
A for accessibility. It’s not only the institutions we support who care about upholding the latest accessibility standards. To ensure that ORION’s new site is accessible by all, we’ve targeted a level-AA contrast compliance (WCAG 2.0), which is in accordance with the recommend standard by Ontario legislature.
Community matters. ”Throughout the project, I kept coming back to the ‘Community’ C of our strategy. I kept asking, ‘what would the user want?’ and it changed our thinking in surprising ways,” says Cathy Bogaart, director of marketing and communications at ORION. “My favourite part of the site are the stories about the people we support through our network. It sounds a bit cheesy, but I really believe that innovation will change the world. Those people, those stories, the impact they have – they make my job worthwhile. I want the tech leaders in our connected institutions to feel the same way – to look at those faces and remember that they’re heroes for supporting this kind of work. That they’re part of the community that together is making amazing things happen.”
Watch innovation at work at one of our connected institutions, Niagara College.
Behind the bells and whistles, we thought long and hard about how to best demonstrate innovation and communicate our insight, on the ever ubiquitous screens of the 21st century. We believe that the changes we’ve made will help polish this channel, in order that you, our friends in innovation, can have an optimized online experience — whether that’s registering for an event, reading our blog and press releases, getting to know us or exploring world-class opportunities and partnerships.
Tell us what you think about the new look on Twitter, Facebook or our Linkedin Group. We’re looking forward to bringing you more content to help support the research, education and innovation industry in Ontario!