New UA.edu Homepage Features Dynamic, Modern Update

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – The University of Alabama unveiled a new homepage, showcasing the University’s world-class visual identity and featuring an accessible and user-friendly navigation and design.

The redesign project is part of a larger effort to broadcast the University’s story and reconfigure the campus web ecosystem to provide a consistent user experience and centralized resources and support.

The redesign is a collaborative effort by the Division of Strategic Communications, the Office of Information Technology and web developers across campus.

“The website is the University’s most important marketing tool,” said Ryan Bradley, UA’s interim vice president for Strategic Communications. “It’s one of the first places prospective students, faculty and staff go to learn about our campus. This fresh design allows us to feature the UA brand and tell more of our story in a strategic, creative and modern way.”

The site highlights academics, research and campus life alongside special feature sections that can change and shift depending on current messaging priorities or time of year.

“Our team was committed to making the site visually appealing, accessible and aligned with UA’s mission and strategic goals,” said Kyle Fondren, UA’s director of web strategy. “The new design aligns the homepage with other recruitment, branding and marketing efforts; enhances compliance with web accessibility standards; and provides new, dynamic ways to uplift campus partners.”

The design and content strategy were informed by cooperative partnerships with student focus groups and projects led by Dr. Jef Naidoo, assistant professor of management and the Derrell Thomas Teaching Excellence Faculty Fellow. The University’s accessibility and compliance staff along with leaders of the Faculty Senate Strategic Communications and IT Committee also provided key support.

“The homepage redesign is part of the larger web infrastructure project the Strategic Communications web team began a couple of years ago. The new look for the homepage is the tip of the iceberg,” Fondren said. “Underneath is a complete re-engineering of the University’s web environment for the entire campus, all built within the WordPress platform.”

This phase of the multiyear project also includes a new University web events calendar, and new WordPress theme to be released to campus web developers later this semester.