By Kayla Perry
The Laurentian University website is being updated, as recent site-viewers may have noticed by the yellow banner at the top of the page.
Jean-Paul Rains, manager of digital strategy at Laurentian, says the website is getting an update in order to become more efficient for visitors and students alike.
“The website is a recruitment tool, first and foremost, and it’s about putting our best foot forward for prospective students,” said Rains. “With the new website launching last year, we took a step in the right direction, but it wasn’t where we exactly wanted to go. Now we’ve taken a responsive reproach, and instead of making a whole new website, we’ve decided we are going to modify the website once a year,” said Rains.
Rains said the site programmers are able to see what pages on the website are most viewed, and can then make sure those pages are easy to find.
“One of the things you’ll notice on the new website is that the path to get from the home page to the undergraduate programs page has been simplified. That was our primary objective – to reduce the number of clicks necessary to get to the popular pages.”
Other updates on the website will include a news-based homepage, where visitors will be able to find seasonal events such as convocationPrograms will now be searchable not only by name, but also by the tags associated with that program. For example, if you were to search for criminology, which is not a LU program, you’ll find forensic science, law and justice, and political science – all other programs that involve criminology.
Rains said the team of website developers are still working closely with academic department heads to determine what the tags will be.
When the new LU website launched last year, Rains said there were problems noticed with the communication of the website, and the way content was delivered. With the updates, the laurentian.ca site will be aimed at external guests, while LUnet will be much more focused for students.
While the new website is still a “work in progress” and will not launch officially until the developing team “believes it is the best reflection of Laurentian,” Rains said the team is aiming for a fall launch. Comments on either the current website or new website can be sent to web@laurentian.ca.
lambda@laurentian.ca