Colors pop off the page. Navigation is easier. News, events and profiles of Warriors are prominently displayed.
All are among the features of the stunning, newly redesigned Stanislaus State website scheduled to launch in early July.
Guided by the University’s brand refresh, the website makeover proclaims all are welcome at Stan State and demonstrates it with a user-friendly website for students, faculty, staff, prospective students and their parents and members of the public.
“We are excited to debut our redesigned website as it highlights all the great things about Stan State,” said Senior Associate Vice President for Communications, Marketing and Media Relations Rosalee Rush. “Our team has created a site that is more contemporary and easier to navigate, and it will provide additional opportunities to tell Stan State’s story and bring the most important information about our University to the forefront.
“For our current students, we hope the redesign enhances a sense of community and strengthens the feeling that they belong at Stan State. We want prospective students to be able to see themselves here and recognize why our campus deserves consideration among their top choices.”
Improved Navigation
In addition to the enhanced desktop version, the new site will be more mobile-friendly said Senior Web and Electronic Communications Developer Mandeep Khaira. Visitors logging onto the site from a phone or tablet will find it as easy to navigate as users with a desktop computer.
“One of our main goals was to provide consistent navigation,” Khaira said. “It’s user-centric. It’s intuitive. It’s attractive. And it’s on par with today’s generation of incoming college students. This is how they navigate. We needed to catch up with their experiences and their way of moving around the web, rather than having a laundry list of links at the top of the page.”
Smoother navigation with quick access to important links and an improved search engine with a built-in people directory search are only part of the redesigned website that has been a year in the making.
“I would say from a user’s perspective, it’s more audience-centric, more logical and our hope is that anyone who comes to the website will find what they’re looking for quickly and enjoy the experience,” said Kristen Sederquist, a communications specialist in Stan State’s Admissions and Outreach Services office, who served on the web advisory team.
An active content contributor to the Admissions and Outreach website, Sederquist is finding the contributor interface easier to navigate, too.
“You don’t need significant design experience or technical knowledge to make your page look good,” Sederquist said. “There is a learning curve, but it’s less challenging to change content on your page.”
Site Celebrates Stan State
Most importantly, the refreshed website feels like a celebration of Stan State — much more than just a repository of information about the University.
It is visually compelling with its use of photos and graphics, exhibiting the beauty of the campus and offering easy access to stories about the people who are the heart of Stan State.
Finding information about admissions, student life, the Stockton Campus, academics or available resources is easier to access with more links under broad headings, including a new mega menu. A click on the new admissions and aid page, for example, will provide links to undergraduate and graduate requirements, financial aid, tuition/fees and much more.
Khaira is creating a Frequently Asked Questions page to further help navigate the newly redesigned website, along with video tutorials. Training will be provided to website contributors once their sites are migrated.
“One of our main goals was to provide consistent navigation. It’s user-centric. It’s intuitive. It’s attractive. And it’s on par with today’s generation of incoming college students. This is how they navigate. We needed to catch up with their experiences and their way of moving around the web, rather than having a laundry list of links at the top of the page.”
~ Senior Web Developer Mandeep Khaira
Once the new site launches, visitors can go to www.csustan.edu, the same web address as before, and a new look will jump off the page. A large horizontal image espousing the University’s core value, “At Stan State You Belong,” appears. That banner greeting and the images will change, but the University’s key ideals will remain prominent.
“It offers a chance to highlight who we are and what it means to be a part of Stan State,” Khaira said. “It’s our front door, our curb appeal. Once you get through the front door, it guides you to where you need to go.”
Below the eye-catching welcoming banner is a prominent set of links to the University’s COVID-19 response information and daily self-screening forms. The new universal header features quick access audience links for students, faculty, staff and alumni. University news and a calendar of events are prominent with links to more of both. Keep scrolling and find how Stan State ranks among other colleges and universities, and dive into profiles of Stan State Warriors.
All of it is presented in the color palette established by the brand refresh: reds, golds, greens and blues.
The website update is the first since 2014.
“The purpose of the website redesign is to improve the experience of our students and their campus life,” Khaira said. “The website is a huge part of that experience. Many students indicated through survey and focus group responses that they only use the website to get to the myStanState portal. We hope they find the new website exciting and that it encourages them to do more online exploring.”
The redesigned website will debut with the most-viewed top-level pages — students, faculty, staff, alumni and the Stockton Campus — along with links and quick links to the most popular sites including the class schedule, course catalog, admissions, majors and programs and campus life.
All other pages on the current website will remain available until they can be migrated to the new design. The old pages and all information on them will be accessible through the A-to-Z directory on the new website.
As the July launch approaches, additional details will be shared with the campus community regarding migration of the website, which includes nearly 300 sites and thousands of pages emanating from them. Throughout the migration process, and following its completion, the Stan State website will remain fresh and relevant with new stories, events, announcements and images updated regularly.