Southeastern Louisiana University officially launched its new website recently after an extensive migration process involving reassessing the university’s online presence from the ground up.
Southeastern Director of Web Strategy Sarah Schoonmaker said the university elected to launch an entirely new site on a fresh hosting platform in order to most quickly modernize the look and functionality of the site. She said they refreshed the design to align with their ‘Get There’ brand positioning.
In addition to being mobile-friendly, the new site was designed to increase SEO (search engine optimization) presence. Additionally, the new site is more ADA-friendly (Americans with Disabilities Act). An example is providing alternate text for non-text content, such as images, videos and audio files, which helps screen readers describe the content to visually impaired users. Since some users may not be able to use a mouse, ensuring that all website functions can be performed using a keyboard alone is also a method of accessibility. In terms of web design, maintaining a sufficient contrast between text and background colors to ensure readability for users with visual impairments is another form of accessibility.
Southeastern President William S. Wainwright said the new website design positions Southeastern to adapt on an ongoing basis to new developments in higher education technologies, web usage and online learning.
Southeastern’s website is www.southeastern.edu.
