Redesign and Reconnect: BC Updates Website

Goal to Attract Past, Present and Future Students

Image+of+bridgewater.edu+website

The bridgewater.edu website was redesigned over the summer featuring easier navigation and stories capturing the BC community.

Cassidy Wagoner, Staff Writer

Bridgewater, Va.- Last year, Bridgewater College launched a new logo. This year the marketing and communication team unveiled a brand-new website. 

The website was launched a month ago, just in time for the beginning of the 2020-2021 school year. The site includes an easier way to access information for parents, students, alumni and prospective students. 

The redesign offers new navigation for visitors to find information easier. Nick Mohler, the director of integrated marketing, led the team to create an online presence to reflect the BC brand.

“The main reason for the web redesign was to rebrand the college, their graphic identity. The update to the college logo, and essentially all of its design material, was part of the plan for redesign,” said Mohler.

The previous Bridgewater website had many different components to it, which presented challenges when people wanted to access specific information they were looking for. With the redesign of the website, it is easier to navigate through tabs that are most popular. The new navigation system was in the works due to the tracking of certain websites being entered and then left. 

Currently, the lead image is two women, with an “Internships” tab underneath. Once clicking on the “Internships” tab, it then provides a story about the experience a Bridgewater College student had while interning at the organization pictured. The College wanted to provide people accessing the website with stories of opportunities had by students.

“The heart of the update was to provide stories related to campus experience and student experience. It is more of a fluid design, which will include monthly updates of the hero image and new stories of student experiences,” said Mohler.  

There are many videos and photographs on the front page of the website that illustrate what life is like for students on campus. Students can share their experience with the college, whether it be sports, clubs or academics and then they can possibly be featured on the website. With the monthly updates, it creates an opportunity for students to share their experiences.

 The constant updates to the website create a more modern page. Information is updated as it is received. With instant information, the continuous updates will keep everyone accessing the page current with campus life news. 

The content will not be the only thing that is being monitored and updated monthly. The information and navigation will also be updated as seen fit by the marketing and communications team. 

“One of the priorities with the redesign was restructuring navigation to simplify paths for prospective students or families so they can find information. The goal of the website was to declutter, there were too many navigation options on the previous website. The redesign cleared the clutter to provide easier paths,” said Mohler.

Mohler describes the website as, “clean, modern, mobile-friendly, but will be an ongoing improvement.”

With the ongoing improvement of the website, navigation will become easier for visitors and information will become available quicker through less tabs. This will provide future, past, and present people at Bridgewater with the navigation system needed to find information.