University of Memphis begins website revision

The University of Memphis is undergoing development for a new website that will be easier to navigate in the hopes of creating as stress-free of an experience for students as possible. 

Holly Snyder, the assistant director of the marketing and communication department who is in charge of the revision, said she is very eager to let students know she is ready to launch the new website in the near future.    

“For us, it is all about the user experience,†Snyder said. “We want incoming students to know how to look for what they need. The cycle of marketing is always refreshing, so we are always making tweaks to make it better. When we make a big revision like this, it brings people from all over campus together, and it is so cool knowing we are the reason for it.â€

When Snyder said this project brought people together, she meant it. One small group of people cannot maintain the updates and uploads for every single page, so 450 users from each department in the university helped edit their respective sites, making this the ultimate group effort. 

“We are also partnered with Second 2 None (a design firm) as far as the designs go, so not many people are aware of what is behind the scenes,†Snyder said. “For high school students looking for colleges to attend, the school website is the first impression they get of our university, so it’s extremely crucial (to have a clear design).â€

Some of the new concepts that will be featured in the redesign are a new search bar, an event calendar and integrating new technology to help students have a more efficient way to maneuver throughout the site.

For students like Erin Cooper, a senior majoring in broadcast journalism, the of a revision is wonderful idea because, for her, she said she had much  trouble figuring the current design out.

“As a transfer student, maneuvering through the website to get to eCourseware took me a semester,†Cooper said, “Simplification is key, and if I were a senior in high school looking for colleges to attend from their websites alone, I honestly would have considered exiting out from Memphis because it is a little extra for me, and I don’t like extra.† 

Cooper also said for the site to be more appealing to young people, it should be more aesthetically pleasing. She said she would like to see more orange integrated into the website because there is a lot of blue, which she said can be very boring to look at after a while. 

Arianna Wishropp, a 19-year-old freshman, said more images throughout the website would definitely draw more interest because pictures are more powerful than words for her, and the current website has few pictures on each page. 

“When I was looking for organizations to be involved in, there weren’t enough pictures to show what the people and activities were really like,†Wishropp said. “Images speak for themselves, and I wish our website included more visual aspects to show more of what it’s like to get involved in at campus.â€

There is no timetable for when the new website will be completed because it is still in the beginning stages of development. Snyder said it can take many months, just like her first revision several years ago.