Ready. Set. Launch! LR unveils redesigned website

The redesigned LR website incorporates many new features and design elements and reflects the input of countless university stakeholders.

After more than 15 months of work, Lenoir-Rhyne has launched a redesigned university website. The new site offers a modern, mobile-friendly design and streamlined user experience.

In addition, the site features a clear and simple topic-driven navigation, new content, enhanced site accessibility and a more comprehensive look and feel that aligns with the LR brand and supports student recruitment and retention.

Coordinated by the Office Marketing and Communications, the project has been a significant focus of the marketing and communications team this calendar year.

“We are immensely proud of the new website and appreciative of the many campus stakeholder groups who worked with us and provided input and guidance during the project. The new website provides a great platform for sharing the LR story and elevating the university brand,” said Doug Minor, associate vice president for digital strategy.

Project Priorities 

Among the redesign project’s priorities were to build a modular, component-driven website that adheres to industry best practices while providing greater flexibility, increased functionality and easier site management on a platform that can support LR’s evolving digital strategy.

Other priorities included improved site usability and organization, improved site search, more expansive academic program pages and integration with university applications and systems, including with Slate (admission CRM), college catalog, university calendar, PowerCampus (for campus directory data) and single sign-on for accessing the website’s administrative backend.

The new website is built on Drupal 9, an open-source content management system widely used by many top colleges and universities.

LR partnered with BarkleyREI of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on the project. BarkleyREI worked with LR on project discovery, strategy development, technical specifications, design, information architecture, content strategy, persona development and technical implementation.

Marketing and Communications has also implemented Monsido, a new website governance software suite. The service regularly scans the LR website to look for broken links, misspellings, accessibility compliance, university policy compliance, search engine optimization (SEO) and other quality assurance checkpoints.

Although the redesigned website has launched, work on the project will continue over the fall and winter months. For more information about the LR web redesign project, visit the Web Redesign Project Blog.