University Communications

At App State, we are committed to enhancing our university's digital presence by improving the quality of our content and delivering a seamless, user-centered web experience.

Our websites are critical communication tools, and this comprehensive web infrastructure project aims to reflect the distinctive Mountaineer spirit while aligning with best practices in usability, accessibility, design, and content strategy.

This project, conducted in partnership with Lullabot, encompasses:

• An Infrastructure Review and Upgrade to ensure security, scalability, and performance.
• Website Migration and Improvements to enhance functionality and user experience.
• Implementation of a New Content Strategy and Web Governance Model to provide long-term sustainability.

The project is an essential step toward creating a modern, cohesive, and accessible digital ecosystem that meets the needs of our university audiences.

With the completion of the infrastructure review, redesign, and platform build, we are now preparing for the next phase: migrating university websites to the updated Drupal platform. Here's what to expect during this phase:

• Migration Batches: Websites will be grouped into batches based on technical complexity. Simpler sites will be migrated first to establish a solid foundation before addressing more complex sites. Stakeholders will be notified when their site is being prepped for migration.
• Site Consolidation: To better align with institutional goals—such as recruitment, research elevation, and digital accessibility—several sites will be consolidated. This effort aims to:
  • Enhance user experience.
  • Improve searchability and discovery of information.
  • Eliminate redundancies across sites.
• Content Clean-Up: As part of the migration process, outdated, duplicate, or irrelevant content will be removed or revised. This ensures the new platform features accurate, streamlined, and engaging information that meets audience needs.
• Events Integration: We are working closely with University Events Scheduling and Communications to implement a university-wide events solution that integrates with 25Live. This initiative will streamline event management and ensure a cohesive digital experience across App State's web presence.
• Document Accessibility: Documents stored on university websites must meet the minimum standards for accessibility. Because many documents in our web environment do not meet minimum accessibility standards, particularly older PDFs and image-based documents, we will not be migrating all files into the new sites. We realize this will heavily impact certain sites. We strongly encourage stakeholders to identify which documents are absolutely necessary for their audiences and ensure those documents are in an accessible format so that we can upload them to the new site.
• Web Governance: A new governance framework will be implemented as sites move onto the updated platform to ensure consistent website management, accountability, and adherence to writing for the web and accessibility best practices. This includes defining roles and responsibilities, establishing workflows for content publication, and providing additional training resources for stakeholders.

As our web team focuses on the website migration process, website access and support requests for sites on the Drupal 7 platform that do not involve technical issues will be temporarily placed on hold. For any necessary content updates during this time, please coordinate with your unit's communication liaison. We appreciate your understanding and cooperation as we work to enhance App State's digital presence.