Web Strategy and Development Blog

Mobile-friendly academic website conversions: Spring semester progress

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Campus scene with many students on mobile phonesMobile usage is growing exponentially — particularly among our largest demographics of prospective students, Millennials and Gen Z.

Last year, Google experienced two mobile milestones:

  • The mobile tipping point, in which the number of mobile searches in the U.S. surpassed searches on PCs
  • Mobilegeddon, a change to the Google search algorithm that benefits mobile-friendly websites over their non-mobile-friendly counterparts

Academic websites converting to mobile

In response to the growing need to reach our audience on mobile devices, we began the process of converting all academic department websites to a mobile-friendly format in 2015.

The conversion process is not a complete redesign. Instead, it converts each site to the mobile template and reorganizes existing content for consumption on mobile devices.

Like the academic website redesigns, conversions are funded by the provost’s office and processed on a college-by-college rotation according to the deans’ prioritization.

Websites that are converted to the mobile-friendly template will later undergo redesign, during which new content, multimedia elements and design elements will be created. This two-step process allows our office to optimize all academic websites for mobile consumption as quickly as possible.

Progress in the first half of 2016

During the first six months of this year, we published the following mobile-friendly website conversions:

Progress anticipated for the second half of 2016

An additional 14 academic websites are either currently in conversion or scheduled to begin the process before the start of the fall semester. We expect all of these conversions to be published during the first half of the fall semester.

Free photo opportunity for faculty and staff

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Faculty and staff participating in a Free Portrait DayFree Portrait Day will be held on June 28. This event is open to all Missouri State faculty and staff. It’s a great opportunity to ensure that university websites and publications are using your up-to-date, professional headshot.

Key details

  • Who: Open to Missouri State faculty and staff
  • When: 9 a.m. – 4 p.m. on Tuesday, June 28
  • Where: Meyer Alumni Center, Room 504

Free photo opportunity for faculty and staff

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Free Portrait Days will be held on April 19-20. This event is open to all Missouri State faculty and staff, and it’s a great opportunity to ensure that University websites and publications are using your up-to-date, professional headshot.

Faculty and staff participating in a Free Portrait DayKey details

  • Who: Open to Missouri State faculty and staff
  • When: 9 a.m. – 4 p.m. on
    Tuesday, April 19 and Wednesday, April 20
  • Where: Plaster Student Union, Room 317

Select your photo on-site

You will review and choose your photo on-site at the event. This photo will then be uploaded to the University directory – with no additional effort on your part.

Within a few days of the event, you will receive the photo you selected via email. This photo is provided at no charge; you are free to use it for other professional purposes.

Recap: Student work featured

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Promotion on MissouriState.edu

In the week following the Fall 2015 Commencement, the Missouri State homepage featured four examples of student work, originally created for JRN 478 (Multimedia Journalism).

Students in this course used writing, photography, videography and social media to create profiles of four members of the Missouri State community. These profiles were copied over to relevant University blogs and promoted via the homepage:

Four stories created by Missouri State students, as seen on the University homepage

The promotion included “selfie” style photos and pull quotes from each profile. The quotes linked to full-length, multimedia features, such as one about alumnus and staff member Peng Zhang:

Story about Peng Zhang's work with Missouri State's China Programs

Access the stories

The full stories for each profile are linked below:

Instagram tie-in

Web and new media planned a concurrent promotion of the material as part of the My Place Instagram initiative, which provides a “Bears-eye” view of Missouri State by presenting images from a specific student’s perspective.

In this case, the takeover subject was the course itself. The posts consisted of abbreviated versions of the profiles students created and pushed viewers back to the Missouri State homepage.

Engagement and results

This promotion resulted in a significant level of engagement during the week between Commencement and winter break, which is typically a time of less engagement.

During the week of Dec. 12 – 19, the stories received 1,045 pageviews. The average time-on-page was 2 minutes, 39 seconds; this indicates that visitors were meaningfully engaging with the content.

Traffic spiked on Dec. 14, the day the stories were promoted with an Instagram takeover; interest in the abbreviated Instagram stories appears to have driven visitors to the Missouri State website, where they explored the content further.

Redesigned biology website: Diverse programs in a mobile-friendly format

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The redesigned biology website recently launched as part of the Academic Website Project. It is the fifth academic website to receive a full redesign for the mobile-friendly template, a process that includes the creation of new content, design and multimedia elements.

Clarifying programs and resources

The biology department is home to a diverse range of programs and research centers. Given the options and opportunities for prospective students, providing clarity became a focus of the redesign.

Each program now has its own sub-section on the website, where information regarding that program is gathered.

The department’s research centers — meaningful recruitment tools — are highlighted in a prominent section of the website’s homepage. The Facilities and Resources page then features expanded descriptions of each center.

The research centers of the biology department, as featured on the homepage

Photo and description of the Gulf Coast Research Lab, as depicted on the facilities and resources page

Using video resources

This redesign included the creation of one new video, which highlights the department’s emphasis on research:

In addition, we were able to leverage videos that were created for other purposes. For example, the following video of a biology alumnus became a valuable addition to the Careers and Outcomes page for the Master of Science in Biology.

Site credits

  • Project lead and content: Lucie Amberg, new media specialist in the office of Web and new media
  • Design: Veronica Adinegara, senior graphic designer in the office of publications
  • Photography: Kevin White, senior photographer in photo services
  • Videography: Sara Silkwood, videographer in photo services
  • Editor: Nicki Donnelson, public relations specialist in University communications
  • Implementation: Brian Heaton, content management programmer in the office of Web and new media, with Lucie Amberg and Sara Clark, director of the office of Web and new media, and student coder Max Orlando