City College has begun a multi-year process of revamping its website with intentions of creating a more interactive, visually appealing and mobile-accessible website for the college.
“The website hasn’t had any significant updates in ten years,” said Luz Martin-Reyes, executive director of Public Affairs and Communication. “We are mostly focused on the look, feel, and design of the website. Not so much the content.”
The goal is to create the website “with a focus on storytelling” by making it more about the students. They want the website to better reflect the City College experience by including stories of students, and more information about the many opportunities the school has to offer.
“I often try to look up information about the programs we offer on campus,” said Madisen Tovsen, President of Phi Theta Kappa and co-president of The Honors Program. “But certain things are hard to find because of the unclarity of the website, making things I’m working on really difficult.”
The new website will focus on becoming a one-stop source for anyone—from current or prospective students and parents to community members—searching for anything regarding City College.
One of the critical updates will be the inefficiency to access the site on a mobile device.
“Out of all the users that visit our website about 50 percent are using a mobile device,” said Reyes-Martin, “and it doesn’t even work.”
So far, the college has taken several efforts to hear from the site’s users about what they would like to see in the new website. Pop-up stands will be available on campus throughout the process to share and discuss more design ideas.
“Student focus groups have proved to be the most helpful,” said Reyes-Martin. “As well as the ‘design voting table’ during Vaquero Welcome.”
City College decided on partnering with the tech company IFactory after interviewing several companies for the project. IFactory is looking at a significant amount of work to be done, estimating around $115,000 for the entire project, according to Reyes-Martin.
Because the company is taking on a complete upgrade of the site, there is no set launch date yet. As of now, they are planning to be done by the end of spring semester or fall 2018 at the latest.
“It’s really important to us to get it right,” said Reyes-Martin. “We’ve had ten years!”
Students can share their opinions on the project at the information meeting on Thursday, Sept. 21, at 3 p.m. in the Administrations Building room 211. They will be discussing all their ideas and sharing preliminary visuals of designs. All students are invited to join or to watch the meeting live streaming on the school’s youtube page.
