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Regent College has always been a pioneer in its approach to theological education. And this pioneering spirit is what led the website redesign project from the very beginning. New approaches had to be embraced and established conventions had to be pushed beyond what might be expected of a graduate school or seminary website. This meant restructuring the information architecture from the ground up, strategically rewriting content, reformatting content with data visualization, video, and beautiful photography, and focusing the message on the core audience—the future graduate school student.

“User testing and strategic enrollment management became critical factors in this project so that we could ensure that we are delivering relevant and authentic content to our audiences in a variety of media. In addition, we could not ignore the rise of mobile usage and therefore chose to build a responsive website rather than building a separate mobile platform. We really believe that this website will place Regent College at the forefront of website design and usability,” says Patti Towler, Vice President, External Relations at Regent College.

Throughout the website, design elements were brought in to reflect the architectural significance of the Regent College campus—a design that has been referred to as the intersection of the marketplace and the church while placed within the academic setting of the University of British Columbia.

After a rigorous request-for-quote process, Regent College engaged a Vancouver-based full service web agency, Domain7, in February 2011. Over the past 15 months Regent stakeholders have worked closely with Domain7 through strategic visioning, design, and development with a talented team of 20 people. “Working with Regent has been strategically, creatively, and technically exciting. However, in the midst of this challenge we’ve been surprised to find ourselves very enriched by engaging in all that Regent does,” says Shawn Neumann, Domain7’s president and founder.

While the site is primarily geared to prospective students, current students were also engaged in the research process and the end result is a tool that functionally meets all their needs. “The navigation is much clearer—it is so easy to access every bit of valuable content. The responsive design is very impressive—not just for use on my mobile but for multitasking—and I can't wait to play with it more," says current Regent student Peter Bejnar.

About Regent College

Regent College is an evangelical, international graduate school of Christian studies based in Vancouver, and affiliated with the University of British Columbia, Canada’s third largest university. Regent College is a theological graduate school—a place of academic rigour, cultural engagement, and vibrant faith that transforms intellect, imagination, and character. Here, people from around the world are inspired and enriched with a deep and practical Christian faith extending into all spheres of life and enabling them to live more thoughtfully in varied vocations in the church and the world.

About Domain7

Domain7 is a web agency, with offices in Vancouver, Abbotsford, and Washington, DC, offering end-to-end online marketing, strategy, design, development, and support. It’s our mission to humanize the web, by making it a place to converse, listen, incite, and advocate for our clients. Domain7 contact: Amanda Smith, 604.855.3772 ext 142, www.domain7.com.