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 students, faculty, staff, visitors and the surrounding community. That creates some unique challenges when building a website.

Elliance came up with the big idea: ACES makes campus life easier for students.

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. This lets students move from public website to ACES website seamlessly.

● Can current students get what 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. We redesigned ACES around the current student, not how ACES is organized. ACES makes campus life easier for enrolled students.

● 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 empowered the ACES team to keep things current by providing advance scheduling for critical updates. Students get the information when they need it.

● Work independently of Alfred State. The website needed to fit within Alfred State’s broader design, content, technology and governance environment while giving ACES the flexibility 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 do what it needs to do. Alfred State’s institutional website redesign was recognized in the 2026 SUNYCUAD Awards for Excellence, so the ACES project is part of a broader evolution of Alfred State’s digital experience.

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

Looking for a college website design agency with experience in university auxiliary services? See our work and let’s talk.