We are happy to announce that Carleton unveiled a brand-new Admissions website on May 15. Staff members in Admissions, College Communications, and Web Services collaborated with an outside firm on strategy and design, and the site was built in-house. Admissions is the first Carleton site to transition from Reason to WordPress, as part of the multi-year Web2020 project.
What’s next?
We are taking this opportunity to get our web house in order as we prepare to move forward, including establishing clarity around topics such as branding, design, content, and web decision making. Here’s what’s on our plate:
- Earlier this spring we sent surveys to website owners to see which months of the year were best for migration of their sites. We are currently reviewing survey responses to help us develop our migration roadmap.
- This summer we will be working to make sure that Reason and WordPress can function side-by-side as sites begin to move from one platform to the other. (For example, events will need to work across both platforms, and directory integration will be needed for WordPress).
- During fall term we will begin the migration of a few pilot sites. These first sites be ones with the most basic Reason functionality and least frequent content updates. This initial migration will give us baseline information so we can do a good job of planning and expectation setting as we move ahead. Offices and departments will be notified well ahead of proposed migration dates for their sites.
“Can my site look like the Admissions website?”
One question that we’ve been hearing is whether or not the new design will be applied to all sites as they migrate to WordPress. The answer is that the new Admissions design comes from many months of work with an outside design firm. It was developed specifically for the Admissions website and will not be the standard design for all sites.
We are, however, looking to incorporate some elements from this design into the WordPress version of our standard website theme. Work on the new theme will take place over the summer and will include input from users across all areas of the college.