Concordia upgraded its website this summer, which just celebrated its one month birthday. The new website includes new tools for students, including an interactive quiz and a social media hub.
“The website needed to be upgraded, it was just simply time,” said Roger Degerman, the senior director for communications and marketing at Concordia.
The website has taken on a four-word motto within the communications department: simple, smart, social and sustainable.
“Simple means easy to navigate, smart reflects on the academic rigor, social is the interactive experience and sustainable in terms of the launching. This is a website that can be maintained and continued,” Degerman said.
This project was a large effort for those on campus, but it also enlisted help of vendors outside Concordia.
The biggest challenge was the enormity of the project. It took 18 months and there was a lot of research, planning and human resource effort required, according to Degerman.
“One of the challenges was having the endurance to see the project through,” said Amy Aasen, director of online communication and associate director for communications and marketing at Concordia.
“The college has a lot of people, and trying to work with everyone made it’s own challenges,” said Billy McDonald, the online marketing technical specialist at Concordia.
A majority of the communications and marketing department worked on this project, as well as a few students and a Vision team. According to Aasen, the team consisted of three faculty and a representative from each division of the college, which constituted another dozen people.
Fastspot, a web design company stationed in Baltimore, was a huge help with the website. They went hand-in-hand with the college through the entire process, Aasen said.
The new website has an interactive quiz that can help students find their major on the Academics tab. This and the social media outlet are two of the most important updates on the website, according to Degerman.
The biggest change to the website was the responsive code that was put into place. This code enables the easy transition of the website to different devices. Depending on the size of the screen, the website automatically transitions to fit your screen, according to McDonald.
All of these changes did not come easily, according to Aasen.
“The week leading up to launch was 15 and 16-hour days,” she said.
The group became like a family during this time.
“Some of us worked up until midnight. That was a common time to be done. Working that much and being so involved and excited about a project, the pay didn’t even matter. There aren’t a lot of projects that you can get that excited about,” McDonald said.
Overall, feedback that the communications and marketing department has gotten has been overwhelmingly positive, Aasen said.
“People were really positive about the new aesthetics of the page, the new look of the page and how smooth things are, the quick load times and the response that it is accessible on all your devices,” McDonald said.
The website has been active for one month now and those who have visited the site internally and externally have had positive feedback, according to Degerman.
The website is set up in a way where it can be changed and modified to adapt with the changes that are happening on campus.
“A website is a living organism, constantly having to adjust and adapt. It was simply time,” Degerman said.
See the new Concordia website here.
Nina Due, 2015, is a News Writer for The Concordian. Born in St. Cloud, Minnesota, she has declared an English Writing major with a Political Science minor.
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