Time to make a change

Liberty launches new website for ease of use and to better market the university

Liberty University launched a brand new layout of its website Dec. 18 in an effort to create a more marketable view of the school.

DESIGN — Liberty’s new homepage made the website easier to navigate. Photo credit: Shannon Ritter

DESIGN — Liberty’s new homepage made the website easier to navigate. Photo credit: Shannon Ritter

Plans for a new design layout began last summer, but those in the Web design department dedicated time to making it a reality around October and November.

According to Program Manager Edgard Luz, a major component to redesigning the website was to make the new layout easier to access on a mobile device. A desktop view of the website is no longer available. Luz said 18 percent of those who visit the website do so using their cellphone or tablet.

“We have been monitoring the numbers as they have been growing,” Luz said. “We wanted to make the website mobile-friendly.”

Luz explained Google made changes as to what school websites appeared first when searching colleges. Schools whose websites were more mobile-friendly came up first, resulting in a decline of visitors to Liberty’s website.

One issue with the previous layout was the insufficient amount of spotlight on enrollment to Liberty, an aspect the designers wanted to change. “The content was for everyone, but not specific to new people enrolling,” Luz said.

Luz said another major component of the new website was to create a convenient Web experience for students. Cleaning up the navigation by creating less clicks to get around the website was a priority in the design process.

When students log into their Liberty account on the main page of the website, the myLU portal is no longer an option. In the new layout, a bar on the right side of the screen features access to the student’s account, including ASIST, Blackboard and email.

The top priority in designing the Web page was rearranging the main page and creating a cleaner search tool. Therefore, various pages within the website have not yet received an update.

“We had to rush to get what we have now to make it live,” Luz said. “We cut some features we wanted to release.”

One of the upcoming features will include easier access to the schools of study available at Liberty. For example, business majors would have a page dedicated to relevant information related to the school of business, as well as to their specific degree.

“We want students to have a Web experience where they can get connected with other students and better understand their program for degree completion,” Adam Wittcop, a project manager, said.

According to Luz, there are plans to update Blackboard sometime in the future. However, due to Blackboard being its own company, improvements made by Liberty are limited.

One future addition to Blackboard would include a dashboard with more information on upcoming assignments in classes. Luz said notifications with “little numbers” would be visible on the applications.
The overall student reaction to the recent changes has been positive, according to Luz. However, there are some students who are having a tough time accepting change.

“We have been monitoring social media,” Luz said. “The way we see it is that it is never perfect, and there is always room for improvement.”

Luz said the website update could not have been made without the work of Amos Adebayo, Aric Burket, Daniel Crankshaw, Mark Douglas Johnson, Stephen Lafountain, Bradley Moore, Brett Sauers, Jeff Setzer, Bethany Schultz, Zach Schultz, Grace Varghese, Jeffrey L. Welch and Adam Wittcop.

Coleman is a news reporter.

One comment

  • I liked he ability to see my grades on the myLU page. I didn’t have to go into black board and it was in an easy to understand format. Oh well. Forward ever.

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