The minarets atop the University of Tampa have been an architectural landmark of Tampa Bay for decades, and the university’s academic program is equally renowned. After working with us to design their site years ago, UT returned to Big Sea for a fresh site that meets the needs of today’s students.
Though the University of Tampa felt like an old friend, we still had much to learn. Our team conducted competitive research, hosted workshops with UT’s marketing and communications team, and visited campus to spend time getting to know what makes UT special.
With the needs of UT’s student body, prospects, faculty and administrators in mind, we revisited the site’s architecture and proposed structural revisions and an updated content strategy to better serve UT’s core audiences. We revised core admissions pages with fresh copy and messaging to help prospects find key information — and picture life in downtown Tampa.
One critical aspect of the new site was a responsive design, as research at the time indicated that students access the university website on mobile and tablets more than desktop.
We needed to design for multiple types of content, from videos to photo galleries to event calendars. Each required careful consideration across devices.
As we designed full pages, templates, modules, and IU patterns across the site, each was designed and tested for mobile, tablet, and desktop. This modular approach allowed UT to retain their existing CMS. Our challenge was to design interworking parks that gave UT’s staff freedom and flexibility to update the site frequently while retaining elegance and usability.
“Big Sea’s team does their research, not only on cutting edge web design trends, but also truly gets to know their clients’ mission and goals. They’re creative and make the process fun, while putting in serious work into their strategy,” says Sarah Tackett, Web Communications Manager at The University of Tampa.
“Since working with them, we’ve had rave reviews from our visitors. They are always right on point with user experience, which is, in my opinion, the most important piece of good website design. I also trusted them to be on time with project targets and design handoff to the developers, in which they pulled it off with ease. I would highly recommend their team to anyone who wants an all-around excellent experience redesigning their website.”
