LLCC’s new website is scheduled to launch today at www.llcc.edu! The website has been a two-year+ project undertaken by the Web Team: Kyla Kruse, director of communications, project leader; Greg Walbert, graphic design manager; Misty Hagstrom, graphic design specialist; Caitlin Perry, website and social media writing coordinator; and Lynn Whalen, chief communications officer; all from Public Relations and Marketing, and Esteban Cruz, chief information officer, Information Technology, in collaboration with KWALL, an experienced website design company with numerous higher education clients.
The new website is designed to be “mobile first,” American with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliant and has an updated architecture, look and features.
The first step was research. The Web Team took a year to conduct focus groups, gather best practices and compose a request for proposal to website design companies before choosing the best match for the college. The Team spent another year working with KWALL designing and building the site, migrating content from the current site to the new site, while adding new content, photos and video. Along the way, President Charlotte Warren and cabinet provided input, along with departments on the content that would be transferred. Students helped test the new site for navigation.
Audiences
The primary audience for the website is prospective students, showing them what the college has to offer and helping them decide on a program and educational path. Current students, faculty and staff, parents and family members, business and community members, and alumni and donors can find links to their targeted information through the Info For tab at the top.
Homepage
The top “main navigation” features buttons to Request Info, Visit and Apply. There are also links to About, Find a Program, Become a Student and Student Life and Services.
The homepage then features a series of hero images, currently three photos that rotate with a “call to action” in each and a drone video of campus with a pause button for accessibility.
Next is Latest at LLCC which features a photo image for each top news story.
Start My Journey allows prospective students to click a box based on their preferences: if they are a transfer student or want to take individual classes, are a workforce student, a student seeking to upskill or reskill or wanting to take classes for personal development, an adult education or concurrent enrollment student.
Next are links to Student Life and Explore the Campus along with another video showing campus life, followed by two tabs, Academic Programs and Workforce Careers, which students can click to explore all of those options.
Testimonials feature current students, employees and alumni with quotes about their experiences at LLCC.
Bottom navigation links include Employment, Contacts and Select Language to change the website to another language.
Looking forward, there still work to do on the site, and the Web Team will be making updates post-launch, including a new campus map, event calendar and department directories.
The Team will provide training to content managers during the spring semester. Until training occurs, please submit PRM Kbox tickets for critical edits to the content of pages.
Thank you to all who came to the website preview sessions, and enjoy the new LLCC website!
LLCC Web Team