In building a new University website, Webmaster Alyssa Goodreau ’12, M’14 worked to keep the content fresh and relevant and the technology current.
“It’s not just about designing a visually appealing Home page,” she says. “It’s about bringing the Westfield State story to life in a vivid and friendly manner throughout the entire site.”
The new site has as a photo-of-the-day feature, which Goodreau says will give users a chance to really understand the heart and soul of the University, its students and faculty. There is also a “Today at Westfield” tab and direct links to the University’s social media sites, like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube.
Goodreau says all campus sites should be refreshed every three years, and this year, Westfield State was due. She became the project manager of the redesign and worked closely with a team of professionals, including analytic specialists, creative teams, content strategists, programmers and developers and many University colleagues to make the redesign as smooth as possible.
Her ultimate goal was to improve the experience of all users, especially prospective students. After an intensive interview process during fall 2013, the University partnered with NewCity, a Virginia-based company, in November to design a new website.
The new site launched in mid-August and features a responsive design, remodeled site architecture and navigation layout, a more advanced search tool, implementation of the University catalog and customized search engine optimization.
Goodreau stresses that a website is never completely “done,” but instead will continue to grow, change and adapt to new and exciting challenges the University faces.
