Website Design Agency for Hybrid 2-Year, 4-Year and Trade Colleges Redesigns SUNY Alfred State College Website

A college website is its digital soul, the heartbeat of its brand, and often the deciding factor for prospective students exploring their next step. SUNY Alfred State College, a hybrid 2-year, 4-year and trade college, approached us to redesign its website. Our recently launched website design exemplifies how a modern, student-centered digital experience can elevate an institution’s story while improving usability for every audience it serves.

Key Challenges

The old site faced several challenges:

• A dated design that did not reflect Alfred State’s quality and applied-learning identity.
• Failure to convey brand position as a technologically minded, forward-thinking institution, resulting in a high bounce rate.
• Weak SEO/AIO practices resulting in lower than expected traffic from search engines.
• Outdated information architecture and user experience that led to deep navigation paths, friction, noise and distractions.
• Fragmented program listings made it difficult for visitors to see the full depth and breadth of academic offerings.
• Inconsistent and fragmented academic program pages lacked a standardized, coherent content model.
• Unclear communication of the value offered to both in-state and out-of-state students.
• Hushed on presenting Alfred State College and its surrounding Western New York environment as dynamic, seasonally rich, and life-changing places.
• Limited mobile usability and slow load times.
• Decentralized content publishing with inconsistent governance.
• A content management system (CMS) setup that made it almost impossible for non-technical staff to update or add content themselves.

Key Transformations

1. A Bold, Career-Focused Brand Experience

Alfred State, with its brand line “Hit the Ground Running”, has always been known for its hands-on applied learning and strong career pathways. The new website brings that identity to life. From messaging that foregrounds job-ready skills to dynamic program pages aligned with industry pathways, the redesign ensures that Alfred State’s brand promise is unmistakable the moment a visitor lands on the site.

2. Research-Driven Information Architecture

We conducted analytics reviews, heatmap analysis, competitor benchmarking, and stakeholder interviews. The resulting streamlined IA focused on the core user journeys of prospective students, families, current students, alumni and media, reducing pathway depth and improving findability, SEO/AIO and analytics reporting.

3. Elevated Storytelling Through Photography and Video

The redesign gives Alfred State’s community the spotlight. High-impact photography showcases real students in authentic learning environments, while strategically placed videos highlight academic experience, campus life, facilities, and outcomes. The visuals work together to tell a cohesive story of a college where learning happens by doing.

4. A Powerful Prospect-Centric Homepage

The redesigned Alfred State College homepage puts prospective students at the center, guiding them quickly to programs, costs, outcomes, points of pride and the support they need to make an informed decision. Clear pathways, focused messages, and purposeful design work together to showcase opportunity, momentum, and the career-focused value of an Alfred State education.

5. Streamlined Academic Program Exploration

Academic programs sit at the center of the student journey. The redesigned program finder makes exploring all 86 two-year, four-year, and credential programs intuitive, fast, and meaningful. Clear filters, human-friendly language, and consistent page layouts help prospective students quickly understand degree options, outcomes, and next steps — no more digging for essential information.

6. Structured Content Model for Academic Programs

All program pages were rebuilt using a field-driven template with standardized sections:

• program description and duration
• student experiences
• program details
• skills students will learn
• related facilities
• program outcomes
• pathways forward
• faculty
• admissions requirements
• related programs

This enabled consistency, SEO/AIO gains, easier updates, and integration with a new program finder.

7. Mobile-First UX & Modern Visual System

A mobile-first design approach ensured thumb-friendly navigation, clean layouts, and improved readability. A refreshed visual identity introduced updated typography, simplified color usage, and flexible content components.

8. A Cleaner, More Accessible Visual System

The website introduces a refreshed visual identity built on simplicity and clarity. A disciplined use of color, typography, and spacing makes the site feel modern without sacrificing the college’s familiar character. The redesign met WCAG 2.2 AA guidelines through improved contrast, semantic markup, structured headings, and ARIA support. This ensures that all users, including those using assistive technologies, can navigate with confidence.

9. Governance & CMS Optimization

We implemented workflow approvals, role-based author permissions, and structured components for non-technical content editors. Departments can now update pages confidently while maintaining consistency across the site.

10. Future-Ready Technical Architecture

A content-editor-friendly, modular, scalable architecture supports integrations with CRM system, campus alerts, academic catalog, event system, news engine, faculty & staff directory, social media channels, and analytics platforms. A continuous integration and continuous delivery/deployment (CI/CD) pipeline ensures high-quality, low-risk deployments.

Impact

This new prospect-facing website is now delivering:

• Traffic is up by 22%.
• Faster, clearer program discovery for prospective students.
• Logic, order, stature, and the full power of digital persuasion to merchandise academic programs, making a clear promise to prospective students.
• Unapologetic modern, authentic digital identity aligned with Alfred State’s brand posture as a a technologically minded, forward-thinking, applied-learning institution that honors, dignifies, and celebrates all prospective students and their career choices.
• Boldly presents Alfred State College and its surrounding Western New York environment as dynamic, seasonally rich, and life-changing places.
• Improved accessibility and performance scores
• Stronger SEO/AIO performance through consistent, structured meta-data and content
• Reduced non-technical content team burden with clearer CMS structure, workflows and reusable components
• A flexible foundation that supports long-term digital growth

If you are seeking a transformative higher education marketing agency or a hybrid 2-yerar, 4-year and trade college website design agency, please see our work and consider partnering with us.