Introduction History
The college is working hard to make things better for its students, staff, and community by making important changes to the mhcc.edu website. This involves updating the website's content and the system that manages it while at the same time looking for
improvements to other systems, sites and processes that interact with the website.
To help with this work, the college engaged Madison Ave. Collective (MAC), a company with 13 years of experience working on big websites for schools, governments, and businesses through a competitive Request for Proposal (RFP) process.
Guiding Principles
Key objectives for the project include:
- Easy access to the most important information and commonly used tools.
- Access to support services and resources for current students that are up to date and accurate.
- Easy access for faculty and staff users to edit pages to keep information up-to-date and accurate.
- A well-functioning search tool.
- A student-focused site that helps students to see themselves at MHCC through their experience with the website.
- A website that’s more inclusive, that has a global translation solution, and that is fully accessible (meeting Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 AA standard) and compliant with federal regulations.
- Create a website that is fully optimized for mobile devices.
During the investigation process, a survey was conducted to gather feedback on a scale from one to ten, where one meant poor and ten meant excellent. The current MHCC website received an average rating of 5.4 from the survey participants. Students and
younger individuals provided the highest average ratings of 6.2 and 5.7, respectively, while staff and faculty gave lower ratings of 4.5 and 3.5. When asked if it was easy or difficult to find what they were looking for on the site, 54% of the survey
participants (387 people) responded with "difficult" or "somewhat difficult."
Measuring Success
After the redesign, how will we check to see if the effort supported the project’s objectives and is attracting prospective students? There are different ways to measure its success, here are some of the top items we will be keeping our eye on:
- Increased User Engagement: Visitors find the website more appealing, informative, and user-friendly.
- Enhanced User Experience: The website is easier to navigate, has an intuitive design, navigation, faster load times, and improved accessibility.
- Mobile Responsiveness: Visitors have a seamless and optimized experience across different devices.
- Positive User Actions: The website is better at motivating visitors to inquire about college offerings and opportunities.
Phases of Work
| Phase |
Schedule |
Status |
|
Discovery
|
Fall 2022
|
Completed
|
|
Communications Planning
|
Winter 2022
|
Completed
|
|
Website Planning and Design
|
Jan – Mar 2023
|
Completed
|
|
Content Creation
|
Apr – Aug 2023
|
In Progress
|
|
Website Development
|
Apr – Aug 2023
|
In Progress
|
|
User Testing and Improvements
|
Sep – Oct 2023
|
Future Phase
|
|
Go Live
|
Fall 2023
|
Future Phase
|
The New Look!
These screenshots are a “sneak peek” into early work on the new mhcc.edu which are to be the basis of the website’s new design
FAQ
- When will the new site go live?
Currently, the objective for the website is to launch in Fall 2023. There are many moving parts to the project, and we will adjust this time frame if needed, but we are making good progress so far.
- How will students and the community be consulted?
When the project began, a wide group of students and community members took part in a survey process, followed by interviews and focus groups to collect their needs for a new website.
During the project, email and social media will be used to share key project updates.
Students and community members will have the opportunity to test the new site once it is built. This feedback will be built into the final release!
- Who should I contact if I have any questions about the project?
Please contact Associate Vice President of Marketing and Communications Megan Nugent at megan.nugent@mhcc.edu or Digital Marketing and Communications Strategist, Ashley Moreno at Ashley.moreno@mhcc.edu.
- What are some of the key improvements with the redesign?
There are many aspects of the website we aim to improve. The first being the website will have a new, more modern layout and design which will make it easier to use and increase accessibility for our whole community. We are also taking
a more thoughtful approach to how we write and update website content so that it is easier to understand and find on any device. We’re also adding a new search engine and built-in translation function.
- Will this affect the my.mhcc.edu portal or only mhcc.edu?
While this project will mainly impact mhcc.edu, there will also be some changes to the my.mhcc.edu portal. As part of this project, we worked with our consultants to focus on who our main audience is for our website content. We determined
that current and potential students are our prime focus. As a result of that decision, there will be a review of the content on my.mhcc.edu to see if any of it should be moved and placed more prominently on mhcc.edu. to ensure
it is more visible to our student audience.
Project Team
- Project Sponsor: Al Sigala, VP of College Advancement
- Project Manager: Chris Stephens, Sr. Business & Project Management Analyst
- Steering Committee Member: Megan Nugent, Associate VP of Marketing and Communications
- Steering Committee Member: Mike Lee, Applications Services Manager
- Project Team Member: Jacob Springer, Lead Web Developer
- Project Team Member: Colby Sutherland, Visual Design Strategist
- Strategic Partners: Madison Avenue Collective