Web Project Management

The Harbert College of Business Brand is more than just what's found in the Branding & Style Guide.  Harbert College of Business is a nationally ranked hub of undergraduate, graduate, and continuing business education that is inspiring the next generation of business leaders. Harbert distinguishes itself by offering:

• Courses led by distinguished faculty,

• Rigorous and accredited programs, and

• Top-tier student experiential learning.

The new website focuses heavily on these offerings while providing target audiences with clear paths to achieve their goals on the site.

From producing RFPs to implementation, I collaborated with team members and worked with multiple vendors to create engaging content that speaks to our target audiences. The final deliverables included:

• 1 hero video,

• 13 informational videos, and

• 432 pages of new SEO content.

One of the goals that we achieved with the redesign included the implementation of a mobile-first design. This was given importance as we realized about 40% of visitors to our site were using mobile devices. The goal was to ensure that the user experience was excellent, no matter the device. 

Accessibility, privacy, and quality assurance were also high on our goals list. Meeting WCAG2.0 Level AA conformance was a legal requirement of the new site. As an extra step, we worked towards GDPR compliance to minimize risk and protect privacy. We also instituted SiteImprove to help us with continued accessibility improvement and overall quality assurance of the site.  

Squiz Search Tool was integrated into the website redesign to create more touchpoints with our social media channels by returning web pages as well as social posts from YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram. It also has a feature that allows us to customize search terms so that people get what they are looking for even if they don't use the same terms or misspell a term such as "entrepreneurship."  

The directory is also a functional piece on our site that Squiz built for us. The directory listing is populated by data from an XML file. As a side note, we also were able to use that same XML file to populate the digital signage directory. The listing can be filtered by first name, last name, department, or office, and it can show the most popular searches at any given time.

We faced several challenges, including:

• Change in leadership at project kick-off, 

• A large volume of content development, 

• Managing cross-functional teams in multiple time zones, and

• Launching the website during the initial phase of work-from-home conditions due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
  
  

The following solutions led us to a successful website launch:

1. After new leadership was briefed on the project, we kicked off the project with a 3-month delay. 

2. Part-time staff and vendors were hired to help generate new content.

3. Project management tools, including Basecamp and Teamwork, were utilized to keep project deliverables and milestones on track.

4. Frequent Zoom meetings with cross-functional teams were held leading up to the launch, which was conducted with all parties present, in a Zoom meeting of course.
   
   

Outcomes:
The site was successfully launched on May 5, 2020. The new server configuration was flawless, and the site performed perfectly upon launch. The new site architecture decreased the number of pages (not including blog posts and news articles) from over 3000 to just over 400. However, when we compared analytics from 2020 to 2019, we saw a 12.53% increase in new users, a 4.88% increase in page views, a 6.8% increase in sessions per user, and a 13.73% decrease in the bounce rate which indicated users were more engaged with content on the new site. Success also correlated with an 8.5% increase in enrollment!