University Auxiliary Services Website Design Agency: The Alfred State ACES Redesign

Auxiliary services are part of the university, but they also operate like a collection of businesses, serving enrolled students, faculty, staff, visitors and the surrounding community. That creates some unique challenges when designing a website.

During our discovery interview with Jonna Ann, the executive director of ACES, and her team, we quickly realized that they were deeply committed to putting the needs of students first. Elliance came up with the big idea: ACES makes campus life easier for students. This idea guided the information architecture, design, copy and technology choices.

Four challenges stood out for ACES:

● Look like Alfred State, but be distinctively ACES. The site needed to share the college’s visual language without losing the personality and purpose of ACES. The result: students can move seamlessly from the Alfred State website to the ACES website without feeling like they’ve left the college’s digital ecosystem.

● Can current students get the information they need without having to think about how ACES is organized? ACES has a surprisingly broad portfolio: dining, campus store, campus spending account, campus ID card and other services. Each has very different content. The challenge was making them all feel like one coherent experience without creating a collection of disconnected mini-sites. User behavior data helped us redesign ACES around students, not around how ACES is organized.

● Keep information current for students. Menus change. Daily specials change. Hours change. Events come and go. Auxiliary websites often have more time-sensitive content than a traditional institutional site. We extended the functionality of Drupal CMS to empower the ACES team to keep things current by providing scheduled publishing of critical updates. Students get the information when they need it.

● Work autonomously within the shared Alfred State digital ecosystem. The website needed to fit within Alfred State’s broader design, content, technology and governance environment while giving ACES the autonomy to manage its own operations.

The result is a website that feels connected to the new Alfred State digital experience while giving ACES the flexibility to manage its own content and operations. Soon after launch, Alfred State’s institutional website redesign and digital experience was recognized in the 2026 SUNYCUAD Awards for Excellence.

One university experience. Two complementary websites. A much better digital experience for the people who use them. Why not.

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