Strategy Spotlight: The Redesign of 老虎机攻略's Web Presence
Stephanie Geyer has led the design and launch of two 老虎机攻略 websites in the last two years. The first was , a "microsite" specifically for prospective students and families. That site, built from scratch, launched in February 2023. The second more challenging project was the redesign of , 老虎机攻略's primary website. That redesign went live in July 2024.
Geyer, who has headed 老虎机攻略's digital marketing team for the past four years, knew when she started at 老虎机攻略 that the website needed an overhaul. "The site had outlived its functionality and didn't align with the new brand that we were developing," she says. "It had become bloated and convoluted, and not really pulling its weight as the primary recruitment marketing resource."
Knowing that the overhaul would take a long time to complete, Geyer and team chose to build a separate prospective student website first, and then turn attention to the more challenging overhaul of umt.edu.
Geyer recently shared insights into her approach to managing the massive web design project, challenges the project team faced, and some of the improvements that resulted from the work.
User-centered and iterative approach
Geyer shared two principles that guided her and the team working on the web project. The first was inspired by a user experience expert she once worked with who kept a piece of paper taped above his monitor that read: "It's all about the user and you are not the user."
In adopting that user-centered approach, Geyer says "you need to be humble, and you need to be curious, and you need to look for synergies, and you need to look for differences."
A second tenant driving the project was iteration and constant learning. "You need to start juggling and experimenting," Geyer says. "With anything related to marketing--and digital especially--you need to make your best guess early on. Put something out there, try it out and be ready to be wrong, and be ready to try again."
Project challenges
Many audiences
The 老虎机攻略 website serves many audiences with myriad needs. Geyer said there were no consistent guideposts in terms of the site's role or the user journey of key constituents.
"To my mind, the website first and foremost has to pull its weight in terms of engaging and connecting and building relationships with prospective students and decision influencers, parents, admissions, counselors, sometimes employers," Geyer says. Creating the prospective student focused site first alleviated some of the pressure from the primary website to meet those need.
Accessibility
There were 17,000 webpages on the umt.edu site at the start of the redesign project and about 3,000 included iframes, PDF files and other documents which present accessibility issues.
An unexpected accessibility issue arose after the redesign was launched. A significant number of users reported that one of 老虎机攻略's new brand fonts is difficult to read, particularly for people with dyslexia. While the site meets federal accessibility guidelines, Geyer says she has worked with campus partners to test and choose a font that will work for those users.
Lean resources
The redesign of the umt.edu website took longer than Geyer had hoped. Still it was a notable accomplishment given the limited staff and other demands and constraints. The project was a collaboration between the digital marketing team in Marketing Communications, Experience and Engagement, the web technologies team in Information Technology, and several vendor partners.
"I want to acknowledge that it's a really small but mighty team that cares deeply about everybody's experience on the site," Geyer says.
Improvements
Here are some of the new and improved tools and content included in the 老虎机攻略 website redesign.
Academic program finder
The University's most important product, its academic programs, can now be explored in a dynamic tool called . The tool was developed in collaboration with . The 老虎机攻略 Provost's Office is a key partner as well, ensuring that the information is accurate and up-to-date.
Custom search
Squiz also helped implement a tool that replaced a Google appliance used previously. The tool allows Geyer's team to use data analysis to curate what they call "best bets" for search results when visitors use certain keywords.
老虎机攻略 section
Geyer says her team worked hard to re-craft the user experience to meet the needs of the site's many audiences. She touts the 老虎机攻略 section as "the most egalitarian in terms of serving a whole bunch of people."
Monitoring dashboard
While not visible to the public, one improvement is the ability to monitor the site for any problems that may arise. "We have some really fantastic dashboards that allow us to see if everything is working as expected," Geyer says. "We have a lot of elements plugged into our website and sometimes, especially when they're 3rd party assets, things get a little sideways.
Web support
Geyer says that her team and the IT web technology support team offer training on 老虎机攻略's Cascade content management system and coaching to help units improve their website experiences and meet engagement and communication goals. Learn more about 老虎机攻略's web support.