UAFS sees an updated website as a way to improve recruiting efforts

Terisa Riley, chancellor of the University of Arkansas-Fort Smith, appeared as a digitized character in a retro video game version of Super Mario to celebrate the university's revamped website. 

The university launched its revamped website — still uafs.edu — Sept. 21. The new website, which is part of the marketing budget, will cost about $40,000 a year for maintenance, security, licensing and system support.

Chris Kelly, senior marketing director at UAFS, said it's important to invest in the website because it is an "integral" part of the recruiting process. 

"An institution’s website is the first stop most students and their parents make when they begin deciding which university is right for them. It’s our most important marketing tool and we knew it was time for an upgrade," Kelly said. 

In addition to helping prospective students, the upgrade will help current students by making myUAFS, BlackBoard, LibGuides and Navigate more accessible. 

"The beautiful, uncluttered design showcases a student-centered strategy ensuring our web content is always accessible, up-to-date, and, of course, mobile-friendly to tell our story more effectively and completely,” Riley said. “Information is easier to find, and the architecture of the site has been intentionally designed to streamline data and eliminate redundancies." 

The Department of Marketing and Communications spent more than a year modernizing, designing and updating the website to "fully align with the university’s new visual brand and better support its core institutional values."

With the help of the UAFS web team, Kelly moved and updated more than 2,000 pages of content to the new site. 

"From the beginning, our goal has been to create a website that delivers the same supportive and informative experience our students, faculty, and staff have come to expect from UAFS,” Kelly said. “The new design, simplified menus, and updated architecture all ensure our digital campus is just as welcoming as our physical campus.”