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BearWear returns to homepage mid-January

January 6, 2015 by

Friends pose with Boomer in front of Plaster Stadium

Friends pose with Boomer in front of Plaster StadiumTo celebrate the BearWear Friday tradition, the Missouri State homepage features photos of students, faculty, staff, alumni and community members in BearWear each Friday.

Due to continuing changes to the homepage with the new mobile-adaptive design, the BearWear Friday photo feature will be on hold until mid-January.

Keep sending your photos

Please continue submitting your BearWear photos for inclusion in this spirited project. We look forward to showcasing your maroon and white travel snapshots, family pictures and Instagramed selfies again soon.

You may submit BearWear Friday pictures on the Go Maroon website.

Filed Under: Redesign, Web redesign 2015, web strategy and development Tagged With: BearWear, BearWear Friday, homepage, Redesign

Mobile-adaptive homepage debuts

January 4, 2015 by

Homepage in different modes

In response to the demand for websites that can be readily consumed via smartphones and tablets, the homepage for MissouriState.edu has transitioned to a mobile-adaptive format. In addition to serving mobile consumption, the new format provides a rich, multimedia experience that includes more photo and video and heightened social media integration.

We encourage you to try out the new homepage on your desktop computer, tablet and phone to see how it adapts to different screens.

Access the homepage

Notable enhancements

  • Athletics now has a presence in the top navigation of the website.
  • The main feature area is more prominent, allowing us to spotlight very high-level content in a variety of ways – including photo and video. Color themes will coordinate with each feature’s theme, photography or selected media.
  • All feature areas can now be rotated according to a fluid timeline, one that’s responsive to important Missouri State news and events.
  • The social media activity stream continues to have prominent placement, providing users with real-time snapshots of the Missouri State community.

While the overall structure of the new homepage is established, incremental changes will continue to occur as we keep Missouri State’s Web presence in line with evolving tech trends and user expectations.

Feedback and questions

We invite your feedback. Please send us your thoughts.

Filed Under: Redesign, Web redesign 2015, web strategy and development Tagged With: design, homepage, Redesign

Mobile homepage launches Jan. 4

December 15, 2014 by

Missouri State homepage preview

New homepageIn response to the demand for websites that can be readily consumed via smartphones and tablets, the homepage for MissouriState.edu is transitioning to a mobile-adaptive format. In addition to serving mobile consumption, the new format provides a rich, multimedia experience that includes more photo and video and heightened social media integration.

Missouri State’s mobile homepage will officially launch on Jan. 4, 2015. You have the opportunity to preview it now. Please note that the website looks different when you access it on your desktop, mobile phone and tablet.

Notable enhancements

This preview version features sample content and is an accurate representation of the new design’s tone, look and functionality.

  • Athletics now has a presence in the top navigation of the website.
  • The main feature area is more prominent, allowing us to spotlight very high-level content in a variety of ways – including photo and video.
  • All feature areas can now be rotated according to a fluid timeline, one that’s responsive to important Missouri State news and events.
  • The social media activity stream continues to have prominent placement, providing users with real-time snapshots of the Missouri State community.

While the overall structure of the new homepage is established, incremental changes will continue to occur as we keep Missouri State’s Web presence in line with evolving tech trends and user expectations.

Feedback and questions

We invite your feedback. Please send us your thoughts.

We look forward to launching on Jan. 4!

Filed Under: Redesign, Web redesign 2015, web strategy and development Tagged With: design, homepage, Redesign

Website masthead updated to touch friendly design

September 15, 2014 by

Template

An increasing number of prospective students are accessing college websites solely through mobile devices.Consider these stats from the 2014 E-Expectations report:

  • Both students and parents overwhelmingly said they used smartphones for their mobile browsing.
  • Nine out of ten seniors and eight out of ten parents have access to a mobile device.
  • 71 percent of seniors and 45 percent of parents have looked at college websites on their mobile devices.

This means that University websites must be optimized for consumption on smartphones and tablets, and we will be transitioning the homepage to a mobile friendly design over the next several months. The new design will have specific layouts for desktops, tablets and phones.

Rather than introduce all of the changes at once as with past redesigns, we plan to slowly change major sections to match the new designs, allowing a more gradual transition where we can adapt to feedback.

Global masthead changes

Today, we updated the website global masthead to a more touch-friendly design. The new masthead is a further modification of the changes we introduced in our initial mobile templates.

Non-touch friendly masthead
OLD: Non-touch friendly masthead
Touch friendly masthead
NEW: Touch friendly masthead

This change will take some time to complete. Web Press sites will see the new masthead very quickly. Other sites will have a much more gradual rollout as we have time to change their templates.

As part of the change, the four major links the homepage has offered within the BearPass login tab will now be in a touch-friendly menu on every page throughout the site.

BearPass login tab on the homepage going away

On Sept. 22, the BearPass login tab will direct people to use the new BearPass menu in the masthead.

On Oct. 6, we plan to completely remove the BearPass login tab on the homepage. While it is the single most popular tab, the design methodology is not compatible with our mobile friendly layouts.

Feedback welcome

As always, we welcome your feedback throughout the process. Please comment on this post, or email web@missouristate.edu.

Filed Under: Redesign, Web redesign 2015, web strategy and development Tagged With: design, homepage, Redesign

How to become Missouri State homepage famous

October 21, 2013 by

Media hub

In this post I would like to do a quick review of how the media hub and activity stream on the Missouri State homepage function, as well as some general rules and suggestions for getting your content to appear on the homepage.

Overall homepage rules

  • Content must be relevant to at least two audiences
  • Audiences include prospective students, current students, faculty and staff, alumni, parents and family, community members

Media hub

The media hub consists of four content tabs: photos, videos, athletics, and Go Maroon! Typically, content in the media hub only appears during the week it is relevant.

Media hub

Photos

  • Consists of photos highlighting that week’s events
  • Is the default tab on Sunday, Monday, Thursday and Saturday
  • Changes weekly

Videos

  • Consists of 3 videos; 1 main video and 2 smaller videos
  • Is the default tab on Tuesday
  • Changes weekly

Athletics

  • Consists of the most recent scores, an athletics calendar, and athletics news
  • Is never the default tab
  • Content is automatically generated from MissouriStateBears.com

Go Maroon!

  • Highlights something ‘social’
  • This tab changes to BearWear Friday photos on Friday
  • Ts the default tab on Wednesday and Friday
  • Changes weekly

Activity streamStream

Activity streams are present on high level pages such as the homepage, Current Students, Public Affairs, and President’s site. All of these activity streams pull sources and content from a single database, though the content and sources pulled onto each stream varies.

  • Streams pull content from Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, blogs and RSS feeds
  • A group consists of a department or University unit
    • A group can have multiple sources feeding the stream (ex: COB Facebook and COB Twitter accounts)
  • Only one item per group is pulled every 30 minutes
    • If two items are posted within 30 minutes, the second item will never display
  • The stream removes duplicate links
    • If two different items point to the same link, only the first item will display in the stream
  • Only status updates and photos pull from Facebook

Other options

Promo buttons and posting to the master calendar are additional methods to get your content on the homepage.

Promo buttons

Promo buttons are used to advertise short-term items on the University homepage or applicable audience pages. The purpose of promo buttons is to promote any initiative/event to your intended audiences. The promo buttons appear on the left of the activity stream on the homepage.

Master calendar

The calendar of events is intended to provide complete information regarding Missouri State events to the campus community and the general public, and serves as the single source for all University web calendars. The calendar appears on the right of the activity stream on the homepage.

Filed Under: web strategy and development Tagged With: calendar, content, homepage, media hub, promo buttons, promotion, Social Media, stream

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  • Last Modified: October 20, 2013
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