The new depaul.edu is designed to respond to the screen size of various devices. These days, we can access information from almost any place at any time with any device—from your home desktop, with your phone on the train, or traveling with your tablet.
To better accommodate this changing digital landscape, EMM’s Web Communications—in partnership with Information Services (IS)— unveiled a new mobile-friendly depaul.edu on June 21, which provides for more seamless interaction on any device. In planning for the new website, the team focused on user interaction, interactive content, visual design and more robust analytics.
Driven by analytics, Web Communications found a significant increase in users accessing DePaul websites using mobile devices. Mobile traffic, which includes phones and tablets, increased from 5 percent in 2011 to 28 percent in 2016. With
depaul.edu serving as the face of the university’s web presence and a key marketing tool for prospective students, it became imperative to create a new site that responds to the size of each device’s screen, known as responsive design.
In the process of migrating more than 800 pages of content on
depaul.edu to a new responsive SharePoint platform, Web Communications performed a content audit based on site traffic and user behavior analysis. The new site features more streamlined copy so visitors can easily scan and access information. Other new features include more interactive multimedia, photo galleries and videos.
“This is by far the strongest integration of visual design and content that we’ve ever launched,” said Sharon Miller, director of Web Communications, who has managed and overseen four design iterations of
depaul.edu throughout her 17-year tenure. “It’s a very fresh design that allows more flexibility in how we present text and images on the site. And we rewrote the content on every page to make it more engaging and personal.”
Depaul.edu isn’t the only website getting a facelift. Miller and her team are also completing migration of DePaul’s 90 websites, which include more than 65,000 pages, to the new responsive platform. Two-thirds of the university’s websites have already been migrated while the others will be done in the near future.
Visit
depaul.edu to experience the updated site. For more information or questions about DePaul’s website, contact
Sharon Miller.