Since the launch of the Collegewide Web Redesign Project in August 2025, Austin Community College District (ACC) has been hard at work building a more student-ready, future-focused digital presence. The goal is to launch the College’s new public-facing website in January 2027.

On Monday, June 22, faculty and staff gathered for a Website Show & Tell and three topic-specific workshops. Joined by digital design consultants from iFactory, the event provided a first glimpse at layout concepts, the new homepage, and the overarching framework guiding our new public-facing site.

The website will be designed with belonging in mind. Everyone who comes to the website should:

  • Feel a sense of belonging and connection, 
  • Get the information they need to start strong, and 
  • Know the value of ACC to the community.

The key design strategies currently steering the project include:

  • Program vs. Department Pages: Clearly differentiating between academic program pages (prospective student-focused) and department pages (current student-focused). Department pages will remain public.
  • Progressive Disclosure: To avoid overwhelming prospective students, the new site will lean into “progressive disclosure”—a design strategy that shares exactly what a student needs to know when they need to know it.
  • AI Optimization: Artificial intelligence relies heavily on structured content, so the new site architecture will reinforce clear, standardized formatting to ensure information is easily parsed and discoverable.
  • Two Destinations: The external public-facing site will help people learn about ACC, while task-heavy, logged-in content will move towards student and employee portals and intranets.

Audience Pathways

The team shared the initial version of the top-level site organization principles, which include six primary categories of information:

  • Academics & Programs
  • Admissions & Aid
  • Student/Campus Life
  • Student Support
  • About ACC
  • Audience-specific information for current students, business & industry, community & alumni, parents of students, faculty & staff, and giving to our Foundation. 

These categories were based on the student journey using four different personas, or research-backed profiles of our site users:

  • Traditional prospective student
  • Dual credit high schooler
  • Adult & workforce student
  • Employer, alum & partner

How We Got Here

Getting to this point has been a massive collaborative journey involving input from deans, chairs, subject matter experts, and the Collegewide Web Advisory Committee. 

Over the past several months, the team has focused on listening to current and prospective students, employees, employers, alumni, and community members. 

To date, the team has collected information from:

  • 8 stakeholder interview groups
  • 60 interview participants
  • 3 focus groups
  • 558 survey responses

Additionally, audits have been conducted on the website’s search engine optimization (SEO)/geneative engine optimization (GEO), analytics, and content, as well as the College’s social media channels and competitors. 

System Improvements to Look Forward To

As part of the new site, the team is planning three system upgrades to improve the user experience.

  • Find What You Need: AI-powered search that synthesizes answers instead of returning near-duplicate pages.
  • One Collegewide Events Calendar: A centralized events system that consolidates calendars so dates surface in the right place at the right time.
  • Compliance Designed In: Built to WCAG 2.2 AA standards with plain language at an 8th-grade reading level and accessibility services surfaced in support.

Learn More & Stay Updated

Following the sneak peek, the iFactory team held smaller work sessions with key stakeholder groups to refine the next layer of web pages:

  • Reviewed early admissions wireframes with Student Affairs partners to shape the digital onboarding experience.
  • Reviewed layout concepts with deans and chairs to figure out how unique academic areas are best structured and showcased.
  • The Collegewide Web Design Workgroup connected with iFactory to talk technical shop, digest feedback from previous sessions, and map out practical implementation steps.

You can watch the recording of the Show & Tell here (use passcode !X#i7bCe) and view the slides here.

Continue to follow the progress of the Web Redesign Project at austincc.edu/redesign.