The Department of University Relations and Marketing and its web design team have planned a website redesign for Missouri Southern. According to URM Director Cassie Mathes, these changes are still in the early planning stages, but as they advance, the design team will want input from faculty and students on what they would like to see on their university’s website.

According to Mathes, the current website holds over 4,500 pages, making the redesign a process likely to take a year or more to complete. Mathes also said the redesign will be more than improving the aesthetics of the website.

“What might be a more accurate [way] to describe this project is almost a website rebuild,” said Mathes. “When we talk about redesign, we talk about a lot of things, but I think when a lot of people think about redesign they think of the way it looks.”

Some of the other changes will include updating to HTML5 coding, ensuring the site is compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act, and improving navigational structures to be easier and more consistent for users.

Mathes also said the redesign team has completed a mobile site prototype and expanding template they plan to present to a focus group.

“Whatever we do regarding templates … we’ll definitely want feedback from people before we launch anything,” Mathes said.