At the end of October, the Northwestern Public Relations department unveiled a brand new layout for the NW website. Plans for this redesign have been in the works for more than three years, and the PR department was excited for the launch.
According to Duane Beeson, director of Public Relations, one of the intentions behind the new design was to make it easy for people to access a mobile version of the website without having to download an app. The site now features an option for prospective students to apply to NW right from their device.
“It was really a high priority for us because we know that in today’s world, especially with prospective students, they are doing so much on their smartphones,” Beeson said. “So not having a website that was responsive and adaptive was a big disadvantage for us.”
The PR department also hoped the new website might give a fresh, accurate representation of NW.
“We want a site that’s going to represent NW will both visually and through text,” Beeson said. “It should be a true reflection of who we are and be appealing to prospective students, which is our number one target audience.”
Since NW has such an extensive collection of photos and videos, new and different page layouts were designed to showcase all the media from during the school year. This included some new photos and videos as well as new ways to display media from the previous website design.
Although the updated website’s current form is in action, Beeson said it will be seeing some ongoing changes in the near future.
“We’re always coming up with new ideas and new things that we want to add,” Beeson said. “One thing that we have talked with admissions about is doing student blogs, which is probably something that will be added, along with a variety of things.”
