Vermont Technical College is pleased to announce that its recently relaunched website has received three design awards from two award competitions. One of the competitions, the W3 Awards, awarded the website Silver in the “Website Redesign” and “Best User Experience” categories. The Academy of Interactive and Visual Arts (AIVA) select the W3 Awards. According to their judging criteria, websites are judged on creativity, usability, navigation, functionality, visual design and ease of use. Vermont Tech’s website also received a Silver Davey Award for the “Websites-Schools/Colleges/Universities” category. The Davey Awards are a competition specifically for smaller agencies and are judged by top-tier professionals in media, advertising, and marketing firms.
The college’s website migration project was initiated to upgrade the CMS platform. Built on Drupal 7, the 2006 website was in danger of not being supported by developers into the near future. Vermont Tech chose WordPress for the migration as it owns nearly a third of the CMS market. Given the effort, the college also took the opportunity to refresh the design and showcase its new Schools organization, featuring the Schools of Agriculture, Plant, and Animal Science, Engineering and Computing, Nursing and Health Professions, and Professional Studies. The college’s 45+ professional and technical majors are organized within these Schools.
“We are especially proud of the “Best User Experience” award,” stated Amanda Chaulk, Director of Marketing & Communications for Vermont Tech. “Our students and prospective students are the most important user of our site. Their positive experience is our highest achievement,” Chaulk said.
“Vermont Tech was a great client to work with to achieve these award-winning results,” said Rachael Frank, Chief Strategy Officer & Creative Lead for Gravity Switch, the creative agency who designed & built the site. “They have an amazing story to tell. We couldn’t be more thrilled at creating a web presence for them that is student-centric, easy to use, and helps them meet their goals,” noted Frank.