Vance-Granville Community College
Website Redesign
As a member of the NC Community College system, Vance-Granville Community College understands the benefit of a powerful, ADA compliant website for its faculty, students, and staff. With a service area the size of Rhode Island, VGCC operates 4 attractive campuses, one in each county (Vance, Granville, Franklin, and Warren counties). Offering more than 40 curriculum programs, Vance-Granville Community College serves as a local source for higher education and training. For the 2018-2019 school year, VGCC enrolled over 3,000 students, with over a third enrolled exclusively in online programs.
The Challenge
The old website had become dated and bloated over the years. VGCC was in need of a fresh look, enhanced usability and accessibility of the site. The need for a more ADA compliant/accessible site was a high priority. Also, the steadily increasing traffic from mobile devices was pushing them toward a mobile friendly experience.
The Approach
Small focus groups of faculty/staff/students were held by the college to discover the needs and desires of users. The Webmaster, who was the project lead, formed a committee of faculty and staff that would meet periodically during the initial design phase of the website to help give input and advice.
Based on the initial insights, we designed an impressive, modern home page design that was well received. Working in close partnership with the project lead, we worked through home page revisions, navigation, site architecture, and interior page template designs.
Based on our experience with higher education, we implemented all the key elements of a higher education website, such as a centralized staff directory, online course catalog, workforce development registration, calendar, and more. Once the site development had progressed to an initial preview stage, the project lead shared the link with the faculty and staff for review and preparation to get used to the new environment prior to launch. The site went live over the summer, which was a great time as most of the students were on break.
“The team really helped with deadlines, projections, and came up with questions for me to ask my stakeholders that I wouldn’t have even thought of. They made the process seem much less daunting by planning out milestones and deliverables.”
- Chelsea Porter, Webmaster
The Results
After the site launch in 2019, VGCC immediately experienced increased cross-departmental productivity and communication with students and faculty. Users were able to navigate through the site quicker, obtaining the important information they needed when they needed it.
Custom functionality exponentially increased traffic and engagement. For example, a custom contact form function installed to engage directly with students is actively used around 20 times per day, which has been a great outlet to having a more personal touch with their students.
“I’m impressed with the functionality, ease of use, and overall appearance. Everyone loved and still enjoys the new site. Nothing but great feedback.”
- Chelsea Porter, Webmaster