Background: Tseng College is a division within Cal State University Northridge (CSUN) that offers strategically designed programs for mid-career professionals. Executionists Web Design, in partnership with FourthWall Marketing, was selected to redesign and re-architect their website that would rebrand Tseng College as a forward-thinking, high-value, educational resource. We were also tasked with implementing a site-wide CMS (content management system) to facilitate easy content updating by nontechnical faculty and staff.

Goals & Challenges: The site required a visual overhaul as well as the implementation of a CMS. There was a goal of redesigning the site to support lead generation from mid-career professionals and to attract foreign students. Because Tseng College encompasses many different departments and programs, we faced a challenge of meeting the needs of numerous stakeholders and keeping them involved and informed.

Process:
Documentation / Wireframes
: Because of the complexity of the redesign, involving all the departments and programs of the college, we invested in a thorough Definition phase that involved a series of meetings with our client. Documents delivered in this phase were a Creative Brief, Business Goals, Marketing Brief, Technical Recommendation and Site map. We also created over one hundred wireframes using Axure RP, an interactive wireframing application.

Support Website: In order to keep all the various stakeholders (department heads, faculty, development team) informed and involved in the process, we established a separate website on Google Sites with ongoing documentation for the project. The support site included the project overview, timelines, team contact information, links to the wireframes, documentation, design notes, a calendar and status of tasks. This support site was instrumental in the success of the project.

Design:
Through our iterative design process, we created several rounds and variations of the website visual design for the client to review. Once the client selected a design, we developed a style guide to specify all graphic elements to maintain consistency and provide a solid guide for the creative team that then built the various page layouts and supporting graphics for the website.

Development: Our developers customized the open source Drupal7 framework to permit non-technical marketing department staff to add and edit content according to the needs of each department.. We wrote detailed technical documentation and performed on-site client training to ensure their success in managing content themselves. The college’s technical team worked with our team to smoothly integrate the website onto their servers and link in campus-wide applications.

Successes: The new site has a unified, bright, accessible look-and-feel. It represents Tseng College as a distinct brand within the CSUN family, while still adhering to the required colors and fonts. We brought in images of real Tseng College staff and students, lending a relatable authenticity to the website. Using Drupal as our CMS, we delivered a website that is more flexible and easier to maintain.