Roanoke College launches upgraded website with enhanced features

Roanoke College is pleased to announce the launch of its newly redesigned website at roanoke.edu, which went live on August 23. The redesigned website features many enhancements and upgrades to increase ease of use for visitors.  

A team from Roanoke College led by Whitney Anderson, director of digital communications, and Michael Santoroski, director of web and print services, has been working on the project for more than a year. Along with external partners, the team has created an informative, user-friendly online platform that will better serve the needs of students, families, faculty, staff, alumni and visitors.   

Partners include: 

• NewCity, a leading digital design agency based in Blacksburg, Virginia, specializing in college and university websites.
• Ingeniux, a Seattle, Washington-based company that provides web content management systems. 

Returning visitors to the site will see a complete design overhaul. The redesign project has included in-depth research and discovery with key web audiences, including students, faculty, alumni, staff and prospective students. 

The new Roanoke College website reflects the College’s commitment to serving the community successfully with an emphasis on accessibility, making it easy for all users to quickly find straightforward answers to questions and learn about the extensive offerings at Roanoke. One important step in prioritizing the user experience was to incorporate a dynamic search tool that simplifies searches in real time.  

“The new search server uses artificial intelligence and will make finding information, especially on mobile, much easier for our users,” Santoroski said. “We will also have the ability to filter by news, events and profiles for better search results.” 

The website hosts several important new features: 

• A clean, updated design featuring the College’s new branding
• Mobile-first responsive design
• Advanced search capabilities
• Streamlined navigation and information architecture  

The website redesign is a critical piece in the College’s overall branding project, which launched in April. The new branding, which includes a refreshed color palette, typography, patterns, graphics and writing voice, were established in partnership with Ologie, an award-winning marketing and branding agency, and informed by extensive market research with all of Roanoke College’s audiences.   
 
“We are so happy to launch a mobile-first website that is built from the ground up with the user experience in mind, and also one that helps us work smarter by integrating content from college databases into the website,” Anderson said.