College of Saint Benedict Saint John’s University

Crafting a Unified Digital Presence for a Powerhouse Higher Education Team

Scope

A Unified Digital Presence for a Powerhouse Higher Education Team

We partnered with the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University (CSBSJU) to undertake an ambitious project: launching a brand-new website with a vast scope of 3,000 URLs within a tight 32-week deadline. Leveraging our expertise in WordPress website design, we aimed to deliver a site that not only met the client’s needs but also showcased both institutions’ excellence in higher education.

Vision, Meet Ambition

The primary objectives of this project included:

Designing and developing an extensive and visually appealing website that conveyed both institutions’ offerings and value.
Importing and streamlining content from approximately 2,500 pages while accelerating the page-building process.
Launching the site by the fixed July deadline — no wiggle room!

Needless to say, we needed a little extra elbow grease (and coffee) for this one. To the supply closet!

A Little Help From Our Friend WordPress

Working closely with the CSBSJU, we took a structured and strategic approach to tackle this substantial project.

First, we conducted a comprehensive analysis of CSBSJU’s requirements and existing content to outline the project scope and deliverables. We then created design mockups that reflected the institution’s brand and mission, ensuring a modern and engaging user experience. Once the foundational research and conceptual stages were complete, our development team got to work, utilizing a WordPress multisite to streamline the vast amount of content.

What is a multisite, you ask?

WordPress multisite is a feature within WordPress that allows you to create and manage multiple websites from a single WordPress installation. With a multisite, you can:

Manage all sites from one WordPress dashboard, making it easier to handle updates, plugins, and themes across multiple sites,
Share themes and plugins across all sites within the network, which can save time and ensure consistency,
Set different user roles and permissions for each site, allowing for tailored access and management, and
Streamline the creation and management of content across multiple sites.

This solution is ideal for higher education institutions with multiple departments or locations that need their own websites but also need to maintain a single source of truth.

Navigating the Hurdles

The project presented several significant challenges, including:

Developing a multisite architecture, which was relatively new territory for our team
Managing and organizing the sheer volume of 3,000 URLs
Meeting the immovable July deadline for the site launch

The dev team employed programmatic content imports to transfer and organize content from approximately 2,500 unique pages. This saved a massive amount of time and reduced manual effort, which facilitated an overall smoother and faster page-building process.

We involved the client early in the page-building process to ensure alignment with their expectations and requirements. During the entire month leading up to the development link approval, we held daily scrums with the client to maintain momentum and promptly address any emerging issues. As always, we conducted thorough testing to ensure optimal functionality and performance across the whole website before the big launch.

Touchdown

The project culminated in the successful launch of a beautiful and comprehensive new website that is engaging, user-friendly, and reflects both institutions’ values and offerings.