Improving and Innovating
We were charged with leveraging the recent redesign of the UMass Amherst homepage to develop an updated web presence for UMass Amherst's main externally facing sites. These sites—schools, colleges, and other administrative units—represent our university brand to external audiences, including the primary audience of prospective students.
This had to get done quickly and efficiently, and the end result had to be a group of sites that would be not only effective but supported by a unified technical platform and clear governance.
The process to do this involved everything from stakeholder interviews to site audits. Through this preliminary work, decisions were made about hosting, navigation, design, and much more. Just as importantly, we were able to determine what content decisions needed to happen to keep sites fresh and up to date.
Priorities and Goals
The Ecosystem sites set out to prioritize clear communication that guides visitors to the information they came to get. For most of the sites, this means thinking about how to show prospective students what is special about UMass Amherst, as well as make it easy for them—and the people in their lives helping them make decisions—to begin to imagine themselves as part of the UMass Amherst community.
Ecosystem was designed with the university’s homepage in mind. The Ecosystem sites continue the homepage’s focus on telling the story of UMass Amherst as a place with inspiring academics, groundbreaking research, and a diverse and inclusive community.
Just as importantly, the Ecosystem sites were designed to be on one shared platform, allowing site updates to happen in an efficient and timely manner. This structure also means that all the sites on the platform benefit when new ideas are implemented.
Results
Through Marcom's collaboration with Lullabot and the Information Technology group at UMass Amherst, the Ecosystem sites are now up and running. The project was completed in June 2023.
Ecosystem has built in flexibility while providing a consistent, efficient user experience with eye-catching, beautiful design elements.
Just as importantly, Marcom's continuing support for Ecosystem means we're able to update sites with new enhancements based on the needs and requests of each individual site.