UTRGV Homepage Makeover

EDINBURG-The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley’s (UTRGV) homepage will have a new look this Fall semester. 

The University Marketing and Communications Department will launch the renovation of the University’s homepage before Monday, Aug. 29, 2022. 

Patrick Gonzales, Vice-President of the University Marketing & Communications Department said the decision to renovate was a university-wide decision. “And that decision was made for two reasons, one, we’re in need of a change, the second thing is the functionality,” Gonzales said.

 The website renovation is completely on the www.utrgv.edu homepage site. “When you’re a prospective student or a prospective employee, you go to the main site and see what this university is all about. So I guess it’s just simplified to catch their attention and bring in more people to our university, we really wanted the functionality of this new homepage, to focus on prospective students,” said Gonzales.  

Gonzales explained how the homepage renovation came together. “We interviewed over 300 prospective students and we just asked them, “what do you want to see in a university website?” we put all that together, and my talented team of web developers and creative graphic designers came up with a lot of templates of what it would look like and we decided on one.”

According to Gonzales, one of the biggest challenges faced while taking on this project was the time it took. “This has taken a while because we actually started about two and a half years ago, but during the pandemic, we put it aside to start working on things that were important to the pandemic and being safe and healthy.” 

  He also added that in the future they plan to continue with phase two of this redesign. Phase two is for the colleges’ and departments’ websites.

Gonzales commented, “Eventually a year from now, when the entire website is redesigned, we’re gonna look back and think wow, It’s really benefiting the university. We were honored to be able to take on this huge project for the university.” 

Rigojoe Escobar, a recent high school graduate said one of the first things he looks for in a college homepage is its accessibility…“Whether it is easy to use because some colleges’ home sites are very hard to use and navigate through, so it is better when everything is bolder and you can see it faster.”  

Escobar mentioned that UTRGV’s current home page is easy to use. “It’s not like you’re getting lost, you don’t really need that much help to go through the links.” 

According to Escobar, another thing he looks at on a college homepage is whether it looks fun.  “That they at least display a little bit of fun images, because if you go to a school, you don’t want to just feel burned out. I like when they provide school activities.” 

 After viewing UTRGV’s current homepage, Escobar commented that it really does not need much. “No, I think everything’s fine on the homepage, just make the little letters a tad bit bigger and that’s it.” 

He also added, “The simpler a homepage is to navigate, the more people go into it. Students like something that’s just straight up easier.” 

For more information on the homepage renovation, email Patrick Gonzales at patrick.gonzales@utrgv.edu or visit the University Marketing and Communications Department.