In early 2018, the Peter B. Gustavson School of Business at the University of Victoria approached Caorda requesting a redesign of their four Executive Program websites. The Executive Programs division at UVic provides a multitude of programs aimed at local business people in Victoria and Vancouver, as well as international undergraduate and graduate students looking to develop their global network and expand their business acumen.
The Challenge
Using a proprietary system, the four previous websites were difficult to maintain and cumbersome when it came to configuring page content to be optimized for mobile devices. The goal was to give the websites a much needed facelift, more efficient tracking, and an improved mobile experience. Caorda has helped many clients, of all different industries, with projects like this; however, the timeline for this particular project was very tight. Starting in late January, the sites needed to be live by March 31st in order to successfully transition away from the previous provider. After March 31st, the previous solution would cease to function. The pressure was on (but boy were we excited)!
The Solution
We got straight to business and reviewed the client’s extensive Creative Brief, which we use to kick off the majority of our projects. By honing in on key elements and defining our client’s needs, we’re able to expedite the design and development process to deliver optimal solutions in a fast manner. The better we know our customers and what they need, the easier it is for us to knock projects out of the park.
After the requirements were defined, our design team carefully crafted homepage and inner page mockups for both desktop and mobile devices. Our project’s main contact was phenomenal to work with and gave quick, constructive feedback so we never lost speed throughout the project. The designs for the three consolidated sites were approved in quick succession, then the development team took it from there! With a few minor tweaks and enhancements, the websites were highly optimized for mobile devices and showcased clear calls-to-action on pages to help users find the information they need.
Before launch, our digital marketing specialists crawled the existing websites and ensured a much cleaner web presence by cleaning up duplicate pages that were mistakenly created by the old system and crawled by search engines. The launch went off splendidly—not to mention ahead of schedule (March 28th)—and on budget!
It was an absolute pleasure working with the Executive Programs team. We are thrilled to be Gustavson’s web solutions provider for these programs, and are anxious to see the results that these new websites bring to the table. The program websites are now fully equipped for success from Caorda’s array of services: design, development, digital marketing, hosting, and ongoing support.
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