Carleton.edu Website Redesign

• Navigation: The primary site-wide navigation and footer will be new. We’ll also add breadcrumbs (see example for visual) for easier navigation.
• Site structure: The overall sitemap (or site structure) will change to improve user experience and reduce duplicate content.
• Visual elements: We’re adding more modern and flexible WordPress blocks (like new image galleries and updated card blocks)—similar to the Admissions site—to show as well as tell Carleton’s story. The site will also use Carleton’s expanded color palette.
• Gateway pages: Pages for returning users (e.g. Alumni, Faculty/Staff, Students) will be standardized and streamlined for utility, with less visual clutter.
• Messaging: To align with our brand position, you’ll see more up-front, distinctive messaging on high-traffic pages (e.g. Home, Discover Carleton, Life on Campus).
• New sections: We’ll be adding new, top-level sections, notably “Guides” and “Carleton by the____.” See early mockups of these pages below.
  • Carleton by the ____ content is primarily for prospective students. It gives a sense of Carleton either by photos or numbers or student voices. There will be fewer of these, and they’ll be more evergreen content.
  • Guides are intended to have a broader audience, including both prospective and current students, and go more in-depth on certain topics. They are more evergreen than blogs, but like blogs, these will have categories like “academics” and “student life”.
• Visual density: The new design will be less dense with more white space (additional padding, or breathing room) for both text and visuals.
• Sidebar blocks are going away: All sidebar content — content that lives under the left hand navigation or in the right hand column — will get relocated. One goal is to create a more modern, less cluttered page layout, utilizing more full-width blocks.

Current academic site template:

New template for academic sites:

Template for Carleton by the _____, a new content type

Template for Guides, a new content type

Your role stays the same

• You will still edit your site in WordPress.
  • Update: Due to updates in the WordPress interface, the editing experience will change more than initially anticipated. Part of the project delay is to do what we can to make the interface as clean and intuitive as possible and  make sure site maintainers have the necessary training to understand this change.
• Our site management model remains the same: You own your content; Communications and ITS provide support, tools, and resources to ensure performance and accessibility.

We will be pausing intake of any new website redesign requests

• Since all sites will be getting a visual redesign as part of this project, and again, since there are 600+ websites to prep, we’ll be focused on the most highly visible and visited pages.
• You can still submit tickets if something is not working on your site.

Key actions and support

• Sidebar migration: Starting in Fall 2025, Comms began moving sidebar content into the main body of your pages, notifying site maintainers when we were working on your site so they could review and approve our first pass. This is now mostly complete.
• Audit opportunity: This is the perfect time to audit your site. Look for pages that can be archived, photos that need to be updated, media libraries that need cleaning, and content that is outdated.
• Training and help: We’ll offer drop-in office hours before winter break to answer your site-specific questions.
• Editing access: We do not anticipate a “do not edit” period  for most sites. We will pre-load any content updates in a way that works with both the current design and the new one, so everything will be ready when the new theme is activated.

• June 2024: Redesign process started.
  • This involved the work of a working committee, steering committee, and user feedback testing from several audiences, including students, alumni, faculty, staff, and parents.
• Fall 2025: Communications begins reaching out to schedule sidebar content migration.
• Fall 2025: ITS imports new WordPress “building blocks” and tests functionality. Communications works with departments to prep content.
• November–December 2025: Site maintainer trainings and working sessions. Preview the new design, drop-in working sessions for prep work and questions, and tutorials on how to prepare for the new theme application.
• April–December 2026: Comms and ITS focus on getting all 600+ sites ready for the new standard theme.
• November 2026–early January 2027: Heavy quality assurance and testing period for site maintainers.
• Mid- to late-January 2027 Goal: New standard theme applied to the entire carleton.edu.

We are using Asana to manage this project, given the volume of sites, the phased and detailed nature of the work, and the number of people involved.

Asana invite: If you are not already using Asana, you will receive an Asana notification with a subject line: “Action Required: Megan Hovinen [or another team member] Invited you to Join Carleton.edu in Asana.” This is not spam!

You don’t need to have an Asana license to become a collaborator on your site. When you get the invitation, you will be prompted to make an account, but you will not be added to the Asana Enterprise Pilot Program that some of campus is a part of. You will likely receive a notification that you are a part of a free trial. This is okay. Please do not set up any billing info.

Adjusting your Asana notifications: If this is your first time using Asana, the tool’s default setting is to send you notifications via the ‘updates’ section of your email inbox (if you have foldering enabled). We will tag you in a comment in Asana when communicating with you about your site. We recommend visiting the system settings to adjust your notification preferences to only get notified via email when tagged, as the notifications can add up. Reach out if you need assistance with this.

To adjust your Asana email notifications to only get notified when tagged (our recommendation): Go to your profile picture in the upper right > Settings > Notifications > Email Notifications > Communication > only check “Someone mentions [you]”.

If you manage multiple sites: We’ve tried to keep your point person consistent, but that’s not true in all cases. You’ll get ONE Asana invite, but since each site is its own task within Asana, you’ll get notifications on a site-by-site basis as we move through them, and it could come for different team members.

We hear your concerns. As we prep sites for the new standard theme, which moves us toward more of a single-column design, pages will inherently be longer and less dense. The design philosophy driving this full-column layout change is to give site users the most important information first, rather than all the information all at once, which can lead to cognitive overload. Reducing the density of our pages and, when possible, introducing more visuals, will help guide users more efficiently and make the site feel less dated.

We’ll need to make decisions about what content is the most important to live at the top of the page. You can, as site maintainer, still move blocks up or down if you want to reorder your content, and also change layout blocks.

Our current site design has been very dense, so the single column approach is honestly one of the bigger adjustments to the new design theme that we’ll all be adapting to, and it will get easier (and better looking) as we get the new blocks, more formatting abilities, and get used to working within it.

In the meantime, as we move through this site prep phase, certain blocks, such as news and events, will take up more space. There are also some formatting that will not be as elegant if this were falling within our current theme. This will be a short term phase; it is part of the migration process we need to use for this project, to avoid having to pause site editing on multiple sites for long periods of time.

Fall is a great time to focus on decluttering:

• Review our general year-end WordPress cleanup list.
• Archive pages that are no longer relevant. If no history of the content is needed, or if it is backed up elsewhere, consider deleting old and outdated pages; make sure to check with the site owner first.
• If you have questions or feedback about this project, please submit the form below. This way, for common questions, we can keep building out our FAQ page and training resources.

Hi all,

As promised, we’re at the phase where the web team is working site-by-site on the next phase of site prep: Migrating old web blocks to new ones and previewing your site in the new theme to see how things are looking.

Today we’ll be enabling the ability for site maintainers to preview their site in the new theme. Note that only site maintainers can review the new theme; external users will continue to see the old theme.

Unless you’re explicitly instructed by a web team member to turn that on and review your page, please ignore that button for now! Until they go through and take a first pass on your site, things will look particularly weird, and we don’t want to cause undue alarm.​

Other changes implementing this will present:

• You’ll see some new blocks appear in the block list. Please also ignore these for now.
  • You’ll see a pop-up banner appear if you try to use these. We’ll start going over how to use the new blocks starting in August.
• If you accidentally turn on “preview new theme” and start making edits to your site, especially with new blocks, there’s a likelihood you’ll start encountering errors. Just refresh the page and make sure it says “Preview New Theme” in the top right (rather than “Stop Previewing).

​What to expect:

• Your assigned web project team member will reach out via Asana to you before they begin work on your site.
• They’ll follow up with you once done with instructions on how to review, questions, and recommendations.
• They’ll give you a review deadline. 
• After you and relevant colleagues have reviewed, they’ll turn off old blocks and mark your site as ready for the new theme. 
• You can still make edits to your site, but we recommend holding off on bigger changes until the new theme goes live. It will continue living in the current standard theme until January 2027.

Work still underway:

• Minor design adjustments: We’re still dialing in font sizing, margins/spacing between elements, and some blocks that need added functionality. Our goal is to get to minimum viable product by January, with some further refinements to come.
• Breadcrumbs & navigation: As we keep building out the site map tree, that will allow breadcrumbs to appear on your site. We’re also still finaling navigation rules and styling.
• Utility banner & gateways: These are coming in the next phase of work.
• Special sites: For those requiring a rebuild or some custom plugins, these are also in the next phase of work.

Next webinar: Tuesday, August 18 | 11 a.m.

For the full project context, visit the centralized project page. If you have specific questions or feedback, please submit them through the form on the project page.

Thanks, all,

Kallie, on behalf of the Comms and ITS project team

Hi all,

Over the summer and into the fall, our web team will be executing the final phase of site preparation ahead of launching the new WordPress theme (January 2027): block migration and new theme previewing. This work ensures that when we officially launch the new design theme, your pages will look as expected.

The following details what is changing, how we will support you, and how you can prepare.

Overview webinar: Tuesday, June 23 | 11 a.m. CT 

We know June is a busy time for some of you, and also that many of you will be away. This session will be recorded for those who cannot attend. We will also host a second webinar in late August for site admins returning closer to the academic year.

Key things to know — and that webinar will cover in more depth:

• New WordPress blocks: You will see new blocks appearing in your WordPress library. The upcoming webinars will cover how to use them. Note: Please do not use blocks labeled [OLD] or any located in the “Web Team Only” category.
• New block editing interface: Once your site is migrated, you will notice a new pop-out menu for editing blocks. This is part of a larger, standard WordPress update. The process for getting to the page editor will remain the same; simply, the interface for making individual block edits will now be done in the pop-out menu on the side of the interface. 
• Header changes: New header content will live at the bottom of the page while in editing mode. There will be more fields here to complete, and after migration, your header will be one of the things that looks different ahead of the new theme going live.
• Theme previewing: This phase allows you to see exactly what your live site will look like under the new theme. This is the time to start thinking about rearranging content, swapping photos, or trimming or editing text. We’ll offer suggestions when working through your site.

What this means for you:

• Web team support: A web team member will be assigned to your specific site. They will take the first pass at updates, notify you when they begin, and alert you when your site is ready for review.
• Project management: Just like our previous sidebar migration, we will use Asana to share updates and assign review tasks to you. If you have questions about communicating through Asana, read more about how you can manage notifications and how we’re using it. 
• Custom vs. standard sites: If your site features a custom design (e.g., bespoke layouts built with Doug over the last several years), we will need to rebuild your site (specifically, customized pages) using the new blocks rather than doing a standard migration. We will reach out directly to discuss your site’s specific plan.
• Visual transitions: After migration, you will notice subtle structural and aesthetic changes to your current site. For approved academic navigation updates, those will be implemented over the summer.

Where your input will be critical:

This project is a true partnership. While the web team handles the design, accessibility compliance, and structural consistency, you are the expert on your site’s content and visitor needs.

Once we complete our initial pass on your site, we will flag specific areas for your review, share recommendations, and show you how to preview the theme. Your help coordinating feedback with your team is essential.

Please note: While we want to catch anything that is broken or missing, the overall theme architecture and block designs are largely locked in at this stage, so theme design changes will be minimal.

For the full project context, visit the centralized project page. If you have specific questions or feedback, please submit them through the form on the project page.

Thanks, all,

Kallie, on behalf of the Comms and ITS project team

Hi all,

First, thank you all for your collaboration thus far on the website redesign project. From migrating sidebar content to starting to review navigation categorie—on top of the work of digital accessibility and PDF auditing—we are grateful for your time and partnership. We wanted to keep you posted on a timeline update and the next work coming up.

Timeline update: January 2027 launch

After evaluating the current project phase, the Division of Communications and ITS have decided to shift our launch date (originally July 2026) to mid- to late January 2027.

This shift will allow us to launch the new WordPress Standard theme across the majority of Carleton’s sites without disrupting the busy fall term and upcoming application cycle. Key factors in this decision included:

• Production delays: Delivery of final design files from our external agency was delayed by three months.
• WordPress has evolved since we last did a redesign. In the process of building new website blocks, we are doing due diligence to adopt the latest WordPress editing interface and make sure the back-end editor is as intuitive as possible for maintainers.
  • Due to these WordPress changes, we need to develop new site maintainer training material.
• Staff capacity, for both the project team and site maintainers.
  • Between educating site maintainers on some of these newer back-end changes, the work you all are already doing on PDF editing, and unanticipated staff leaves on the project team and among key partners, it was feeling like too big of an ask, especially over summer when many staff are away.

What This Means for You

• Current Site Appearance: Your site will largely keep its current look through the fall term.
• Navigation Updates: For sites (primarily academic departments) already working with us on navigation changes, we’ll keep working to have those updates implemented ahead of the fall term.
• Review period: The period to review your site’s new theme will now take place from late fall term through early-January. We will host trainings and office hours during this window.
• For those of you with special events or work cycles that will be most complicated by this delay, we’ll reach out to figure out a plan.

Next Phase: Block/Content Migration

In the next couple of months and through fall term, our project team will begin migrating your current site content into the new WordPress blocks as the next phase of prepping sites for the new theme.

• You will notice these changes primarily in the back-end editor, with some visual changes on how they are displayed. Similar to how the sidebar migration worked, we will alert you when this work begins and when your site is ready for a final review.
• We’ll continue to hold on major design requests or structural overhauls.

For the full project context, visit the centralized project page. If you have specific questions or feedback, please submit them through the form on the project page.

Thank you again for your partnership and patience!

Kallie, on behalf of the Comms and ITS project team

Good afternoon site maintainers and editors,

The Division of Communications and ITS are partnering to lead a major visual redesign of carleton.edu. This is the planned next phase after our Web2020 migration and is focused on improving user experience, modernizing the overall design, and driving key institutional goals.

This project affects all of our 600+ WordPress sites, and we want to ensure you have the information you need to prepare for the transition. Rest assured, we will be working with you to get everything ready for the new design, and in most cases, your work will simply be to verify that things look good in the new theme.

Why We’re Redesigning carleton.edu

The goal of this redesign is to make sure carleton.edu (and its microsites) embodies and distills Carleton’s brand, meets our audiences where they are, and takes visitors on a seamless, intentional user journey. Plus, we’re overdue for a visual refresh to make our site more user friendly and modern. 

The entire network of sites is being optimized for our primary audience: prospective students and their families, while also increasing usability for our other important audiences: current students, faculty and staff, alumni, parents and families, and College partners.

The Biggest Impacts to Your Site

The main focus will be on cleaning up and modernizing the design:

• Sidebars are going away. We will be reaching out soon to start migrating your existing sidebar content into the main body of your pages.
• New and updated site blocks. You will gain access to more visually dynamic WordPress blocks (like card blocks and new image galleries) to help showcase your content.
• Simpler, more consistent navigation. The site structure and navigation will be reorganized to reduce content redundancy and improve user flow.

What Doesn’t Change

You will still be editing your content in WordPress, and your core site management model remains the same. Your role as the content expert is critical, and Comms and ITS will continue to serve in support roles.

Work you can start now:

To help us prepare for a smooth transition toward our July 2026 launch goal, we’re encouraging site maintainers and editors to plan for content cleanup in the coming months:

1. Review our general year-end WordPress cleanup list.
2. Archive pages that are no longer relevant. If no history of the content is needed, or if it is backed up elsewhere, consider deleting old and outdated pages; make sure to check with the site owner first.
3. Hold off on any website design request or major updates. We will largely need to pause any further website design updates as we prep the site for this bigger redesign effort. 

We anticipate a heavy review and testing period for all maintainers around May–June 2026, and we’ll offer training sessions and office hours ahead of and during this year’s winter break as we collectively start on prep work.For the full context, estimated timeline, and details, please visit the centralized project page.If you have specific questions or feedback, please submit them through the form on the project page.

Thank you for your partnership on this essential project.

Kallie, on behalf of the Comms and ITS project team

Content covered included: Progress updates, biggest learning curves for the new theme, block tutorial, what to pay attention to when reviewing your migrated site. You can view the presentation slides.

Content covered included: New WordPress blocks, new block editing interface, header changes (aka “Carleton Page Top-Matter”), and theme previewing.

Content covered included: Updating your Asana email notifications, preview of sidebar migration, and a preliminary discussion around PDFs

View the recording of the president’s quarterly meeting, specifically starting at minute 43:30.