STEUBENVILLE, OHIO—Franciscan University of Steubenville today announced the launch of a redesigned www.franciscan.edu website that will go live on March 19.

“This new site utilizes some of the latest technologies and design trends in website development to create a more user-friendly web experience for our visitors,” said Kimberly Sponseller, executive director of Marketing and Communications at Franciscan University. “The navigation has been completely re-thought, taking into consideration the needs of our site’s users.”

Sponseller said the new site includes changes and new features suggested by users who responded to a Website Experience Survey conducted prior to the redesign. Some new features include:

• Responsive design that provides an optimal viewing experience whether on a smart phone or computer monitor or any other device;
• More prominent university events calendars;
• Top navigation with drop-down menus in addition to side navigation;
• Greater integration of audio and video elements;
• Better social media and blog integration throughout the site.

Sponseller advises www.franciscan.edu visitors to familiarize themselves with the new layout and navigation, noting that all of the information on the current site can be found on the redesigned site or on MyFranciscan or Blackboard. The more robust audience navigation for students, faculty, and staff will provide them with the information they use the most.

“A website redesign is always a massive undertaking, and ours included transferring, one-by-one, more than 3,000 pages from the current site into the new design plus creating hundreds of new pieces of content,” Sponseller said.

Franciscan University contracted with Akumina, Inc., a web design firm that specializes in websites that run on the Ektron content management system, for the redesign. University Web Communications Manager Tom Crowe and Brian Sizemore of Marketing and Communications, along with Director Kevin Sebolt and Web Application Developer Mark Porter of the Office of Information Technology and six student workers invested many months of work into “improving this vital University communications tool,” Sponseller said.

“Processes like this inevitably have growing pains, but the redesigned www.franciscan.edu is a wonderful advancement of the University’s Web communications,” she said.