Campus News
UC Santa Cruz launches redesigned news site
UC Santa Cruz has launched a redesigned news site as part of its Web Improvement Project, unifying decades of content and enhancing storytelling through a modern WordPress platform that better showcases campus impact and informs the community.
UC Santa Cruz took another leap forward in advancing its digital presence by launching a completely redesigned news site to better demonstrate campus excellence and impact, and keep the campus community informed.
Part of the campus’s Web Improvement Project, University Advancement built the new news site on WordPress and migrated more than 10,000 pieces of content, some dating as far back as 1995.
“The UC Santa Cruz News site is where people learn about incredible work happening on campus, and we focused on trying to provide the best experience to our readers,” said Assistant Vice Chancellor Scott Hernandez-Jason. “In addition to modernizing our web presence, this project also sets the stage for improved storytelling for years to come. I am proud of all the thought and care that went into this project.”
The project team drew on expertise from across Communications and Marketing and included Director of Digital Strategies Rob Knight, Senior Director of Marketing and Creatives Services Lisa Nielsen, Director of Strategic Communications Abby Butler, Baskin Engineering writer Emily Cerf, and Senior Web Developer Jason Chafin. The team worked closely with Modern Tribe to design and develop the site, which launched on April 23.
UC Santa Cruz News offers readers a number of ways to learn about the campus’s research, teaching, and service. The homepage offers highlighted stories and recent media coverage, while also providing options to see recent news by topic and by academic division.
Photography is a major component of the new design. News articles provide better support for photos and video, and the news landing page offers a new Photo of the Week section to highlight the people and places that make UC Santa Cruz special.
The top navigation also includes a new On Campus section to bring more attention to news, announcements, and events that might be of interest to faculty, staff, and students.
The news site redesign delivers on four primary goals:
- Migrating and unifying several decades of content. The campus migrated more than 14,000 pieces of content (news articles, media highlights, campus messages, and more) including articles that date back to 1996 and exist on old campus servers.
- Developing an updated design that helps to elevate campus storytelling: The news homepage is curated, and the news articles have more points of entry, with larger photos, pull quotes, and a new “Key Takeaways” box.
- Creating a dynamic content feed to power sites across campus: A critical part of the launch is a new WordPress news block, which allows WordPress sites to pull news and announcements from our news site. The news block is available now with more documentation coming soon.
- Setting the stage for continued improvement: WordPress, which powers nearly a quarter of top websites around the world, will allow the campus to further build on its news site to showcase the impact of UC Santa Cruz and stay up to date on digital changes and trends.