Concordia.ca gets a refresh

When Concordia’s redesigned website went live today, visitors were treated to a lighter, more consistent look and feel and a better-structured navigation. 

The facelift was about creating a more consistent visual narrative across the top-level category pages: Home page, Programs & courses, Admissions, Campus life, Alumni & giving, News & events, and About Concordia. See the before-and-after comparison.

On the home page and News & events section in particular, campus-wide events are taking centre stage, and Facebook and Twitter feeds were added.

“We recently surveyed our internal community and discovered that campus events are hugely popular and 83 per cent of our students are on Facebook,” says Lucy Niro, Director of Web Communications.
 
The News & events section has become much more dynamic, listing more of the latest stories according to popular topics, such as Teaching & learning, Campus beat, and University affairs. It also includes its own search mechanism by all news topics and key words, and a right-hand rail that promotes information for the media, accolades garnered by our internal community, as well as the latest videos, podcasts, publications and reports.

Videos and photos are also more prominent across the entire site, which will feature many of the images that were submitted as part of the Slice of Campus Life photo contest that wrapped up on October 10.

The A-Z index also underwent a reorganization and makeover, making it much easier to find the hundreds of academic and administrative services and departments, as well as activities, clubs, associations, initiatives and the like.

While the redesign also reflects best practices, the results from web, email and social media analytics, as well as inspiration from leading university sites such as Harvard, Stanford and NYU, Niro says she and her team are also keeping their ears close to the ground. “We’re very mindful of the both the anecdotal and formal feedback we receive,” Niro says.

A new, hard-to-miss “Give Feedback” button in the lower right-hand side of the screen is proof-positive that formal feedback is both solicited and monitored.

The next redesign of Concordia.ca, scheduled for spring 2013, will be transformational and stem from the implementation of the university’s new web content management system, which Niro describes as “our most ambitious project ever.”

Related links:
•    Concordia.ca  
•    "Web content management system project in full swing" — NOW, June 27, 2012