Syracuse University Website Design

content creation Syracuse Syracuse University ux Website

Erica Blust: Asst. Communications Director | Hannah Hein: Content Manager
Christopher Fox: IT Director & Assistant Dean | Beth Teska: Director of Online Platforms | Annalena Davis: Web Developer

The Project

The +500 page website for the College of Visual & Performing Arts at Syracuse University needed to be rebuilt to meet accessibility (WCAG) 2.1 guidelines.

Hannah's Role

Hannah rebuilt the site independently within WordPress, performing a content audit to streamline 500 cornerstone pages to 180 using data-informed research. For launch and finishing touches she collaborated with cross-disciplinary teams across the university and college.

See below for an outline of the project, including Hannah's process.

User Personas

To understand site users and their needs, Hannah created user personas from interviewing users. The interview data was then turned into actionable results and used across digital platforms.

These personas were kept simple for college stakeholders, most of which lacked a design background.

User Flows

Information Architecture

The goal was to consolidate the number of “clicks” to three or less users must perform to complete a task.

This goal was created from Google Analytics research, which revealed users navigate directly to pages through search engines or direct links. This was contrary to the former navigation and content strategy which forced users to click through using complex navigations.

Primary Navigation

The old site had unnecessary navigation(s), duplicated pages and content, bringing its page count up to 500, not including posts or directory entries.

The WordPress site, with streamlined navigation, a hierarchy of content, pla

nned architecture, and a content audit brought the page count down to 180, making it more user-friendly

Navigations before & after side-by-side

Secondary-Navigation for Departments & Schools

Secondary navigations were created for departments and schools, because all seven were drastically different.

Web Content Strategy

At the time of redesign, vpa.syr.edu had gone through a number of revisions by multiple authors over the years. This issue was addressed by simplifying and streamlining content structure, format, voice, and branding through a massive content audit.

Audience

The site also attempted to reach two audiences: external (prospective students) and internal (current students, faculty and staff). This made communication difficult and bogged down the site with administrative messages and procedures. Internal communications were moved to the university's intranet solution. See the +200 page internal website.

Canonical Content

Successful content is “canonical,” meaning it exists in a single source of truth. This wasn't the case of the former VPA site. Content was duplicated both in the secondary navigation, page copy and sidebars. Duplicated content and pages were removed or condensed into one to consolidate clicks, improve SEO results, and user-experience.

Content Audit and Creation

Streamlining Content

As mentioned earlier, there was a significant amount of duplicated content on the current site which interfered with usability, accessibility and SEO. A content inventory was created to determine what content and dead pages needed to be condensed or removed entirely.

Establishing Landing Pages

Particular attention was given to developing the school and department landing pages. These six pages were in the top 10 for web traffic, but used as containers to the individual degree programs. “Bragging numbers,” (simplified infographics) were created to highlight aspects of each school or department. Where possible web copy will be broken up with headers that reflect these bragging points, reinforcing them and making content quickly digestible for users. Additionally, one-minute “sizzle reels” videos will be created for these landing pages.

SEO and Analytics

The following SEO improvements were made:

• Eliminated duplicate content, streamlined navigation(s), simplified URLS, formatted large text chunks using H2’s, H3’s, and bulleted or numbered lists
• On-page SEO (Fixed broken links, made links contextual, added alt text, gave files descriptive names, captioned video content, eliminated dead pages)
• SERP research, audited competitors sites and keywords, added meta descriptions, utilized YOAST and Screaming Frog to maintain SEO
• Added structured data for Google Rich Card results

See the full SEO Summary.

Implementation

Development and test environments for the WordPress site were provided by the Office of Online Platforms. CVPA’s Office of Communications team built the website, and the site was reviewed by college leadership before launch. The University provided web hosting. Server creation and site migration from test to production environments was coordinated with OP and Syracuse University’s Research Computing team.

Testing

Vpa.syr.edu was tested for functionality during and after the site’s construction by Hannah and the team on:

• Mac and PC platforms, desktop and mobile
• Firefox
• Chrome
• Safari
• Microsoft Edge
• Internet Explorer

Usability tests were also conducted to locate bugs and determine pain points by users both familiar and unfamiliar with the college.

Departments and Schools Review Period

Before launch the Dean, school directors, and department chairs were given a period to review their respective section of the website. During this time they were able to submit feedback and content updates or changes.

Launch

The University’s Office of Online Platforms, SU’s Research Computing, and both CVPA’s Office of Communications and Office of IT coordinated for launch. The site was hosted through CVPA’s servers and IT was involved to make the switch. Research Computing and OP coordinated to build servers, migrate the site from test to production environments, and setup redirects.

Syracuse University Website Design

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Syracuse University Website Design

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