SPOKANE, Wash. – Gonzaga University recently unveiled a completely rebuilt public website, www.gonzaga.edu, featuring an abundance of new features and content, as well as the University’s first intranet, called myGU. Developed with input from users ranging from employees to prospective students, and current students to alumni, these new websites offer better and easier ways to explore, learn, work and connect with Gonzaga.
Gonzaga.edu is Gonzaga’s front door to the world. It has been fully re-engineered with a fresh look and leading-edge technology delivered by a content management system called Sitecore.
“The new public website is focused on the interests and needs of prospective students and families, alumni, friends and supporters of the University,” said Kurt Heimbigner, senior director of integrated marketing and web communications. “Segmentation of content into an intranet focused on the needs of faculty, staff and students made this possible. The former public site had 13,000 pages; the new one has 2,500. We hope our users will be engaged by great stories and images as well as easy navigation to desired information.”
Important advances include a responsive, mobile-friendly design and a focus on improved accessibility for people with disabilities.
“Both sites look great and are easily navigable on any size of device,” said Heimbigner. “In addition, it was important for accessibility to be a core component of the redesign. We’ve held trainings for publishers and followed best practices for copy, video and images. We are conducting an audit of the site very soon to identify further improvements to be made.”
Some unique features of Gonzaga.edu include the Passion Finder and Global Impact Map. The Passion Finder presents potential “passions” prospective students may have, from “Growing the Economy” to “Protecting the Planet,” then offers stories about students and alumni pursuing these interests, possible academic areas of study and more. The Global Impact Map graphically shows locations across the globe where Gonzaga students, faculty and alumni are making a difference.
“The development of these features was driven by input from prospective users,” said Heimbigner. “As we continue to develop the capabilities of the new site, we are excited to implement advanced analytics and explore the ability to provide personalized content to users based on their previous interactions on the site.”
The University’s new intranet site, myGU (password protected at my.gonzaga.edu), is for current students, faculty and staff. It provides easy access to the tools and information needed most with a home page that can be customized for one-click access to favorite internal applications and pages. Other features include:
- An internal People Finder directory of faculty and staff
- Upcoming events, the latest GU news and social media
“Gonzaga’s website is critical to the sustainability and goals of the University. It’s the number one way prospective students learn about GU, and a place where alumni and friends learn about all the ways to connect with and invest in Gonzaga’s mission,” said Heimbigner. “Thanks to help from our men’s basketball team, Gonzaga was one of the most searched locations in the world on Google in 2017. We now have an outstanding experience for those who land on our site wanting to know what this place is all about.”
The multiyear effort was led by Gonzaga’s office of marketing and communications and GU information technology services, together with collaboration from departments and schools across the University.
For more information about the redesign, contact Pete Tormey at tormey@gonzaga.edu.
If you experience any issues with the website, please email Gonzaga's IT Support Center at techsupport@gonzaga.edu or call (509) 313-5550.
