Web Strategy and Development Blog

Redesigned MSAS website: Highlights professionalism and flexibility

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The redesigned website for the Master of Science in Administrative Studies recently launched as part of the Academic Website Project.

Flexibility – a complex selling point

Prospective students get excited about the administrative studies curriculum, which allows them to tailor leadership skills to their individual goals and experiences. This flexibility, however, adds complexity. Explaining the curriculum with clarity and concision became a focal point of the redesign.

Comprehensive program requirements

We accomplished this by building a Core Curriculum page, which outlines the curriculum in terms of its goals.

Website sections dedicated to each of the pre-designed option areas round out the program’s offerings:

A section dedicated to the Individualized Studies option outlines how students may design their own curriculum.

The section of the administrative studies website that is dedicated to international studentsOnline and international options

The MSAS program’s appeal to working professionals and international students also became important to the website’s redesign.

Many courses are offered online, which makes the program a great choice for people who want to pursue graduate studies while working. We created a page specifically for the Online Degree Option, which makes it easy for students to access the resources they need to succeed as online students.

Administrative studies is also an appealing option for international students, and because these students have specific needs and requirements we dedicated a section of the website to serving them.

Video assets

Current trends in digital media made video a critical part of the content strategy for the MSAS website. We created the following video specifically for this project.

In addition, we utilized the following videos featuring MSAS students and alumni, which were created for other University projects.

 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
  • Editor: Don Hendricks, director of the office of 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 coders Brandon Fitzlaff and Max Orlando

How to Upgrade to Mobile-Friendly Templates

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Missouri State University is transforming its homepage and other websites into mobile-friendly templates, and we need your help.

Student on smartphoneYour audience is mobile

Mobile websites are key for recruitment. According to the Noel-Levitz 2015 E-Expectations report, 71% of high school juniors have viewed a college site on a mobile device, and they rate the college website as the most influential resource when researching colleges.

Second, Google recently 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

Sample mobile websiteHow to get a mobile-friendly website

If you have a Web Press site, your path to a mobile-friendly website includes three steps:

  1. Content review and planning
    The Web Help Desk will provide you a content inventory and site map, so you can review your content and make plans on how to adopt the best practices for mobile websites.
  2. Conversion
    The Web Help Desk will convert your website to the mobile templates, then you can implement your plans from step one.
  3. Publication
    Once everything is converted and optimized, the Web Help Desk will publish your website live.

Upgrade to Mobile-Friendly Templates

Please know that we’ll be processing requests on a first-come, first-serve basis. We will do our best to work through the queue as quickly as possible.

Exceptions to this process

 

Redesigned sports medicine and athletic training website: Tradition, achievement and energy

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The redesigned sports medicine and athletic training website recently launched as part of the Academic Website Project. This is the fourth academic website to receive a full redesign for the mobile-friendly template.

Excellence and opportunity

During the content development phase of the project, the athletic training program’s reputation for excellence repeatedly emerged as a theme. Both faculty and students mentioned:

  • The program’s long history of accreditation
  • The high scores graduates tend to earn on the Board of Certification exam
  • The program’s remarkable job placement rate

These ideas became the focus of the content and are layered throughout the website — in both text and multimedia. This video, which features two sisters who both chose Missouri State’s athletic training program, provides an example:

Keeping students connected

The redesigned website also provides opportunities to showcase the department’s very active digital communication channels. The news feeds from these channels are integrated into the website’s design, and the following channels are available via buttons in the site’s footer:

Introducing a new program

The redesign process coincided with the introduction of a highly anticipated new program within the department of sports medicine and athletic training: the Master of Occupational Therapy. Creating a website for a program in the foundational stage presented an interesting challenge. The vision for the program was represented through photography of the faculty members in their own work spaces, which provides a window through which prospective students may glimpse their own careers.

Selection of occupational therapy photos

Site credits

  • Project lead and content: Lucie Amberg, new media specialist in the office of Web and new media
  • Design: Abby Isackson, graphic designer in the office of publications
  • Photography: Jesse Scheve, staff photographer in photo services
  • Videography: Chris Nagle, videographer in photo services
  • Editor: Don Hendricks, director of the office of 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 coders Brandon Fitzlaff and Max Orlando

Mobile-friendly academic website conversions: Summer 2015

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Mobile usage is growing exponentially — particularly among our largest demographics of prospective students, Millennials and Gen Z.

Google recently 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

Missouri State content viewed on a smartphoneAcademic websites converting to mobile

Our office began the process of converting all academic department websites to a mobile-friendly format early this year.

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.

Summer 2015 progress

Over the summer, we completed and published the following mobile-friendly website conversions:

An additional 13 websites are currently in conversion and will be published in the mobile-friendly format this fall. The conversion process will continue until all academic departmental websites are optimized for mobile consumption.

Redesigned HRA website: Welcoming and mobile-adaptive

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The redesigned hospitality and restaurant administration website recently launched as part of the Academic Website Project. It was the second academic website to receive a mobile-happy makeover, making it adaptive to smartphones and tablets.

Sophisticated color palette, welcoming photos

Designer Veronica Adinegara chose the blue and gray color scheme because it evokes the department’s professionalism and sophistication. She selected photos (many of which were supplied by the department) that underscore the connection between the HRA curriculum and students’ real-world experiences in private clubs, restaurants, hotels and other hospitality environments.

The HRA BS program page, which illustrates emphasis areas with photos from private clubs, restaurants, hotels and more
Photos of real-world experiences paired with high-impact text connect the HRA curriculum to career outcomes.

Consistent message of success

The office of University publications had already created successful recruiting pieces for HRA, which served as inspiration for the written content. Many of these words and ideas – particularly the focus on leadership and internships – were identified as being key to student recruitment. These ideas are incorporated throughout the site.

Streamlined organization

One challenge was making the available degree options clear to prospective students. All students are eligible for the BS in hospitality and restaurant administration, which offers opportunities to specialize in certain areas. Students who have already completed an AAS degree in either hospitality or culinary arts are also eligible for the BAS program.

During the redesign process, distinct program pages were created that illustrate the differences between the BS and BAS programs. A new Advisement page was also created, which gathers resources for both programs.

Site credits

  • Project lead and content: Lucie Amberg, new media specialist, Web and new media
  • Design: Veronica Adinegara, senior graphic designer, University publications
  • Photography lead: Kevin White, senior photographer, photographic services
  • Editor: Nicki Donnelson, public relations specialist, University communications
  • Implementation: Micah Meadows, Web and new media student team member, with oversight from Lucie Amberg, Brian Heaton, content management programmer/analyst, and Sara Clark, director of Web and new media