CMU website redesign project progressing

Central Michigan University's website redesign, a key project geared toward advancing the university's enrollment efforts, continues to progress. Highlights of this project include:

• Incorporation of CMU's new brand — "We do." — into writing, stories, tone and voice. New visual components also will be added, including fonts, graphics and accent colors to complement the familiar maroon and gold palette.  
• A media-rich homepage layout comprised of videos and pictures.
• Improved search features and a user-friendly program finder. 
• Designs and layouts adapted for various screen sizes to ensure accessibility on all devices, including phones and tablets.  
• Separate spaces for external and internal content to better tailor information to the user. Internal content will be the focus of phase two of the project.

The timeline for the project, which kicked off in May 2019, has shifted to ensure a full external website experience launches all at one time.

"We are shifting away from a previously planned phased approach, in which the initial launch would include a minimum viable product, or MVP, phase," Lisa Wendland, director of digital strategy and project lead, said. "We will now launch a full external site experience all at one time."

Wendland noted that moving to a full-site external launch approach provides many benefits, including: 

• Better user experience, with a focus on future students.
• No redirects that would send our visitors back and forth between our new and old sites.
• Additional time for change management, training and integrations.
• Consistency of site content.
• Lower risk and cost overall.

A full updated timeline for the external site, including an estimated launch date, will be available in May.

Homepage Conceptualization: Desktop Version

Homepage Conceptualization: Mobile Version