Experience WSSU's newly redesigned website

In support of Winston-Salem State University’s new brand platform, the university’s website has undergone a complete redesign.

The fully-responsive site reflects the university’s new branding and includes improved functionality and navigation. The site responds to evolving web trends, bringing in more fresh and compelling video, photos, and social media content and simplifying information.

The 18-month project was a collaboration between WSSU’s Web Support Services and Integrated Marketing Communications. The site debuted June 1.

“Our primary goal is to create a student-centered site that tells stories of the WSSU experience,” said Jaime Hunt, chief communications officer for WSSU. “Mobile usage has skyrocketed over the last few years, and people are consuming massive amounts of photo and video. This new site puts us at the top of this trend and allows us to provide the type of content our audience wants to consume.”

As part of the redesign, the team researched best practices and trends in web communications, shot new photos and videos, and—with input from university stakeholders—developed new content and design elements consistent with the university’s visual identity.

“Having a beautiful state-of-the-art site, especially one that is so mobile-friendly, will mean that students considering WSSU will like what they see from the moment they engage with us online,” said Joel Lee, assistant vice chancellor for enrollment services at WSSU. “A strong online presence will undoubtedly mean more student interest and brand awareness long term for WSSU.”

The newly redesigned website features WSSU-branded templates, new content, and enhanced functionality, including:

• Mobile friendly: Responsive design will provide an optimized experience for all users. Web pages will automatically resize for desktops, tablets, and phones.
• Easier to navigate: Site layout, menus, and site-wide search function makes it easier to find desired information.
• More functionality: New functionality will help keep each section of the site up-to-date with dynamic content that is easy to manage.
• WSSU News: Users can stay up to date on articles and features with WSSU News. Articles in the news hub are displayed by category, which allows users to browse related articles.
• University event calendar: WSSU’s event calendar has received a facelift with 25Live, a web-based centralized scheduling and event-publishing system developed by CollegeNET. The system allows users to easily post and view events to the web from one location.
• Find My Degree: A new homepage feature allows users to easily search to find their program of interest or browse a list of all academic programs WSSU offers.
• Social Media integration: Social media is integrated throughout the new site with social media streams on the homepage and other key pages.
• Audience-based navigation tools: Prospective and current students, parents, faculty and staff, and alumni will be able to find content most relevant to them with an audience-based navigation tool across the top of all web pages.
• Faculty/staff page: Information and resources, including a news and events feeds, are all together in a new online one-stop shop for faculty and staff.

For more information about the launch of the new WSSU website or about the CMS and the content development process, email web-support-services@wssu.edu.