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Stark State Web Site Gets New Look

When most Internet users log on to a familiar web site and see a new design, they rarely realize the effort that went into creating it – especially if the site is a large one. Case in point is the newly designed site for Stark State College, which was unveiled at the end of April.

"This site is the culmination of enormous staff-hours of work," said Irene Lewis-Motts, Stark State's Director of Marketing and Communications. "The initial meetings with WRL Advertising started about 18 months ago. The WRL team worked closely with Communications/Web Specialist Mike Ihrig during the entire process." Ihrig headed an internal team of staff members including Beth Klein, graphic designer; Lori Williams, staff writer; and Geoff Starnes, network systems and security coordinator.

According to Lewis-Motts, the new Stark State web site features a contemporary design "in keeping with 2010 standards" that has a cleaner, more open look and is easier to navigate than the previous version. Features are closer to the home page, so not as much 'drilling down' is required to locate important pages. Key menus are prominent on the home page, while other panels highlight recent news and a Flash animation of new features at the college.

Under the hood of the new web site are other features that make the site easy to maintain. WRL designed the project so Stark State employees can modify or maintain all aspects of the code and can change content without having to generate new pages. There is also role-based authentication, which gives individual users the ability to modify just the areas they are responsible for maintaining.

"We're quite pleased with the results", said Lewis-Motts. "I think we've produced a great new tool whether you're a student, staff or faculty, or simply want to learn more about what we offer."

The new site may be seen at starkstate.edu.