This document summarizes the redesign of the SUNY website led by mStoner and TerminalFour. It outlines: 1. The roles of each partner in the redesign - with mStoner focusing on strategy, information architecture, and content, and TerminalFour on implementation, testing, and support. 2. The core goals of telling SUNY's story more compellingly, raising its brand profile, and showcasing what it offers to internal and external audiences. 3. The solution of building two home pages - SUNY.edu for prospective students and external audiences, and System.SUNY.edu for staff and administrators. 4. The challenges of conveying SUNY's impact

1. mStoner
RE-IMAGINING SUNY.EDU
Thursday, 4 June 2015
Presented by:
David Belsky, Director of Marketing & Creative Services, SUNY
Taras Kufel, Web Design & Content Manager, SUNY
Fran Zablocki, Strategist, mStoner

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Project Partners
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MSTONER’S ROLE
Strategy
Information Architecture Development
Responsive HTML/CSS Development
Usability Testing
Content Development
Analytics
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TERMINALFOUR’S ROLE
Implementation
Testing
Training
Support
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Bring it all together
• Formulate a Narrative
• Complete Implementation
• User training
• Create and Update Content
SUNY’S ROLE
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CORE GOALS
1. Tell the SUNY story more compellingly
2. Raise the SUNY brand profile
3. Showcase the depth and breadth of
what SUNY offers
4. Meet the needs of both internal and
external audiences
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CHALLENGE
BUILD A HOME PAGE THAT MAKES A
MILLION PEOPLE HAPPY
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1stlargest state education system in
U.S.

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64campuses

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460,000current students

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88,000
faculty and staff

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Tons
of prospective student applicants.

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SOLUTION
BUILD TWO HOME PAGES
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SUNY.EDU
for prospective students and
external audiences.
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System.SUNY.EDU
For staff & administrators
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CHALLENGE
CONVEY THE POSITIVE IMPACT THAT SUNY
HAS ON THE WORLD
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SOLUTION
PARALLAX FEATURES HOME PAGE
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CHALLENGE
MAKE KEY INFORMATION AND
TRANSACTIONS EASY TO USE
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SOLUTION
LEAN, FOCUSED INFORMATION
ARCHITECTURE
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We minimized the number of paths that users
could take. We didn’t want to overwhelm them,
we wanted to present them with just the most
important pieces of information and actions.
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Information Actions

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SUNY.edu’s top navigation and content is
meant to connect and lead into these actions.
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SOLUTION
OFF-SCREEN AND HIDDEN NAVIGATION
INTERACTION
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The ‘Now at SUNY’ drawer introduces
off-screen, sidebar content as a
companion to the parallax experience.
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The ‘Super Footer’ houses a great deal
of information, but keeps overall screen
real estate minimal.
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It also provides further access to user
tasks and actions of value.
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CHALLENGE
ALLOW SHARED DATA AND ASSETS ACROSS
SUNY
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SOLUTION
A COHESIVE BACK END DATA ECOSYSTEM
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SYSTEM.SUNY.EDU

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RESEARCH FOUNDATION
FOR SUNY

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OPEN SUNY
(Future T4 implementation)

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T4 DATA
ECOSYSTEM
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SUNY MEDIA
SUNY.EDU
RFSUNY.ORG
SYSTEM.SUNY.EDU
OPEN SUNY

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By using a shared data structure and
TERMINALFOUR back-end, all four sites can
share and publish from the same asset pool.
This includes news stories, data points,
photography, media and search results.
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Content can be created once and used many times
across sites for efficiency and consistency.
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SOLUTION
DATA-RICH FEATURE STORIES
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Predictive content strategy was used to introduce related
stories and articles on the Features Page template.
This behavior emulates modern online newsroom best
practices.
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CHALLENGE
CHANGE CONTENT DEVELOPMENT
STRATEGY FOR AN ON-THE-GO WORLD
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SOLUTION
ANALYZE CONTENT FOR AUDIENCES AND
TASKS
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Analytics is your friend.
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Know who you’re talking to and
what you want to say.

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Develop content that could
build our reach through our
existing strengths.
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Renew focus on daily blog output to
connect users to tasks on SUNY websites.
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Apply to SUNY
Do Business with SUNY
Work for SUNY
Conduct Research with SUNY

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RESULTS

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“I’m most proud that we rolled out a result that really reflected so many people’s
input and ideas, yet still presented one, unified State University. We are 64
campuses strong, but there is no question at SUNY.edu that we are one
system.”
David Belsky
Director of marketing and creative services at SUNY
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Further Resources
mStoner Blog Posts on the project.
SUNY.edu case study.

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THANKS! QUESTIONS?
Fran Zablocki
Strategist
fran.zablocki@mStoner.com
www.mstoner.com
(585) 678-1169
@Zablocki