As a follow-up to the notice in MacEwan Today a few weeks ago about the new builds on the MacEwan.ca website, the technical switch of moving MacEwan.ca to a new content management system is scheduled for August 24. You should not notice any difference at that time.

The first pages rebuilt in the new mobile-friendly design are set to go live starting August 31. You will notice big differences then. The website layout has stronger visual components and streamlined content and navigation and will be optimized for viewing on all devices, which is important as people increasingly navigate the web using a mobile device. The first phase of this web project is focused on rebuilding academic programs, and subsequent phases will include rebuilding news, events, the MacEwan.ca home page, and remaining web segments.

To work effectively on mobile devices, the MacEwan website’s global navigation had to be trimmed down. Instead of five main pieces of global navigation with a number of sub-navigation items, the new global navigation will be four main pieces linking to a landing page for each from which users can navigate. The items that are currently at the top of the website – links to myPortal, Contact Us and Safe at MacEwan – will still be there.

Other enhancements include an improved search tool (still powered by Google but more effective than the current search) and an ability to search and filter program lists.

As we are not able to rebuild the entire website all at once, for a while we will be running two web designs in parallel, and we are working hard to ensure the links between the two will be smooth and clear.

From Web Services