New Eckerd website wins award; managing the email avalanche

Eckerd College's new website features lots of visual images.

By Kathy McDonald

Photos and screenshots by 
Anne W. Anderson

Eckerd College’s website. found at eckerd.edu, has more than just a fresh, new look and layout. It also is mobile friendly and streamlined.

And it won a Silver ADDY award in the Consumer Websites category last month from the Tampa Bay chapter of the American Advertising Federation (AAF). The Eckerd site competed with sites from all sorts of businesses across the Tampa Bay regions, not just those sites developed by other higher education institutions.

Designed by a St. Petersburg company, ClearpH Design, the website markets Eckerd College primarily to prospective residential students and their parents, while also featuring the colleges other academic and non-academic programs. The redesigned PEL website, eckerd.edu/pel, can be found under "More Offerings", which is at the top right corner of every page.

Another Eckerd marketing feature, personalized videos, designed by St. Petersburg's Roundhouse Creative Studio, won two Silver ADDYs -- one in the Branded Content category and one in the Innovative Use of Interactive Technology category.

According to Michel Fougeres, Eckerd’s director of marketing, communication, and web services who, with Sarah Richardson, Eckerd's digital marketing media manager, oversaw the year-long project, the new website was created for several reasons:

To create one mobile-friendly experience. As more users move to searching the Web from a smaller-screened smartphone or tablet, the site needs to be equally readable as on a larger-screened desktop or laptop. Plus, mobile-friendly sites have user-friendly features like hyperlinked phone numbers. Instead of having to punch numbers, users can click on the link to place the call.

Additionally, Google gives priority to sites that are mobile-friendly in determining which sites to list near the top of the list of a search, which means PEL, too, is now listed more prominently. This keeps the homepage focused on residential recruiting.

To streamline the site. “The old site had about 9,680 pages and other items,” Fougeres said. “Most of those were used by faculty, staff, and students. The new site has about 600 pages focused on promoting Eckerd College. Prospective students and visitors are less apt to land on a random page containing a van reservation form, for instance.”

Most internal pages used by faculty, staff, and current students have been moved to Google sites. For example, PEL’s main pages are part of the new website, but the Directed Studies and Writing Services pages are on Google sites.

To catch visitors’ attention. Technology users today expect a different look and user experience. The old site had fallen out of date in look and feel, leaving potential students with the impression our college might be out of touch as well.

“Users have come to expect visually rich website experiences that tell a story as much with images and video as with text,” said Fougeres. “This refresh was a real opportunity to capitalize on one of our key 'differentiators', our beautiful location.”

The new look also has been applied to print materials, which includes color updates, new design elements like gradients and hexagons that echo our historic St. Petersburg sidewalks, and a more modern font.

Where to find what you need

 

MyEckerd has a new look, and as with any change, it can take a while to become comfortable with the new layout. Anne Anderson, PEL director of blended and online learning, said she has had a number of people asking for help in accessing their email and in finding the list of links to campus sites such as the Library.

Gmail's screen confused some people.

Part of the problem wasn’t the fault of Eckerd’s new website, however.

“The same week Eckerd launched its new website,” Anderson said, “Google added a ‘new features’ screen that opened when people clicked on the gmail link in MyEckerd.”

Even she was confused at first. “It took me a few minutes to see the ‘Sign In’ link in the upper right corner—next to the more prominent ‘Create a New Account’ block,” she said with a laugh. A couple of people she talked to said they went ahead and created new accounts, not realizing they wouldn’t be Eckerd.edu accounts.

Left:  Connect to your Eckerd gmail account, the ECWeb, and Moodle by clicking on one of the three boxes in the lower blue/green bar. To connect to the old MyEckerd page of links to the Library, Banner, etc., click on For Faculty/Staff in the upper right corner. 

To check whether the campus is open or closed due to weather, scroll to the bottom for the Campus Safety Status. Also at the bottom, under Account Management, are the links to change your password or to contact the IT help desk.

Email Tips: If you feel buried in an avalanche of email when you open your inbox, consider opting out of some Eckerd list-serves. [Campus Events], [Clubs], and [CPS-Events] are used to communicate events, items for sale, and other non-official items.

One way to sort mail quickly is to use the search bar at the top to locate specific senders or topics. Folders can help, too.

Consider forwarding your Eckerd email to your personal email address, especially if you keep forgetting to check your Eckerd email. But don’t be too quick to delete mail—just mark it as ‘read’ and you will still be able to search for it if you realize you need it later on.

Who to contact if you see something that needs attention

 

While the website has been streamlined, Fougeres noted, some of the content still needs to be updated and sometimes glitches occur. If you find any errors on the PEL site, such as broken links, inaccurate or confusing language, or other problems – or if you have a suggestion -- please contact Kathy McDonald at mcdonakh@eckerd.edu.