Project Goals and Objectives
In partnership with OHO Interactive, the university will redesign its website to deliver a new and future-focused digital strategy and web presence that elevates the university and reflects best practices in design, content strategy, usability, accessibility, technical implementation and overall user experience.
The website redesign will be completed in two phases:
- Phase 1, which launches December 2023, will create a streamlined and customized digital experience for prospective students, parents and our vast and diverse audience of visitors.
- Phase 2 will be building an easy-to-use intranet for current faculty, staff and students in collaboration with several university divisions.
Some high-level goals of the project include creating a site that:
- Highlights Seattle University’s brand strengths, qualities and values, rooted in our Jesuit and Catholic character.
- Engages prospective undergraduate and graduate students and their families, without sacrificing the needs of secondary audiences, including students, alumni, current and prospective faculty and staff members, the media, donors, industry partners and the general public.
- Provides a dynamic academic program finder that enables users to easily browse and explore academic offerings.
- Organizes content in an efficient and logical manner for primary target audiences, while preserving deeper content structures to meet secondary audience needs.
- Incorporates search engine optimization (SEO) best practices to improve site visibility.
- Displays optimally across many screens and devices.
- Is robust, yet flexible enough to continue to grow and evolve with our web presence.
- Ensures accessibility so there are no barriers in interacting with the website for people with physical and situational disabilities.
- Reflects the vital, engaging and dynamic university community that we are.
Corresponding with the redesign work we will:
- Evaluate our current website governance and site management, site support, hosting and recommendations to support our new website strategy.
- Increase conversion rates for online applications and inquiries, increase engagement, decrease bounce rates and increase search rankings. (We can benchmark current performance metrics versus post-launch).
