About the Project
The website redesign project was started in 2018 by an enthusiastic team of staff and students within University Marketing and Communications. With the goal of creating a more engaging, streamlined and informative space for Northern's audiences on the web, UMC worked diligently to identify opportunities to improve our digital presence.
Through our research, we discovered a lot about the volume and quality of our web content. We also gathered new insights about who our website users are and what they are doing across our pages. Data showed that over 60 percent of our visitors were coming from a mobile device or tablet, a drastic increase from NMU's last website redesign in 2013. With that in mind, the new site was designed with mobile compatibility as a top priority.
Key site features
- The site design, development and build were done completely in-house by NMU developers, designers and content specialists.
- The theme was built using a card system that is extremely mobile responsive and flexible, allowing any internal page to be a "custom" site
- The site has enhanced embedded media capabilities, additional ADA compliance measures, and defined structure within pages that will aid in search engine optimization (SEO)
- There is streamlined navigation throughout the site, including simplification of the main site navigation, removal of the left-side navigation on internal pages, and the addition of a robust footer
Website Redesign FAQs
When will the new website be public?
The website migration will be done department by department. As of July 16, 2020, the following subsites within the NMU family are live to the public:
- About NMU
- Career and Technical Education (CTE)
- Global Campus
- Graduate Admissions
- Pick One
- Research
- Safe on Campus
- Undergraduate Admissions
- Wildcat Express Center
The remainder of NMU's 140+ sites will follow throughout 2020.
When will my department be moved to the new design?
At the beginning of the project, analytics were gathered to determine which sites had the most traffic. These analytics determined the order of which departments will migrate to the new design. We will contact each department individually when it is time to migrate and they will have an opportunity to provide feedback and approval before the site is made public.
Will editing remain the same?
The editor will be set up differently. We will communicate directly with those in your department who have been trained as web content editors on how to make updates within the new website. There will also be a series of training videos that will show them how to use the new editor, along with the option to be re-trained by a marketing and communications employee.
We worked diligently to ensure that the new editor would be easy to use and navigate for our web administrators across campus.