Flathead Valley Community College

A Post-pandemic Website to Support Schools, Students, and Staff

Founded in 1967, FVCC is dedicated to promoting excellence in lifelong learning, focused on student success and community needs. Located in Northwest Montana, FVCC serves residents over a two-county region covering more than 5.6 million acres, an area larger than the state of Massachusetts. FVCC’s main campus is located in Kalispell, Montana, and a satellite campus is located in Libby, Montana.

FVCC provides high-quality academic programs taught by excellent faculty. Students may choose from more than 50 career and technical degrees or prepare to transfer to a four-year university or college to pursue a bachelor’s degree. FVCC also offers concurrent enrollment courses for high school students, online and remote classes, select undergraduate and graduate degrees through partnerships with various Montana colleges and universities, customized workforce training for area businesses, and non-credit classes for students of all ages.

FVCC’s small class sizes, personalized student support services, diverse financial aid packages and scholarship opportunities, along with the value of education we provide are just a few of the many reasons why students choose to further their education here.

FVCC is a welcoming campus community where diversity and inclusion are important to our staff, students, faculty and campus community.

Best in Show award-winning website redesign for education

Project6 was an outstanding team to work with to redesign our college website. Their professionalism, expertise, and ability to work with all areas of campus to create a site that really represents our organization was incredible. The team is dedicated, friendly, and always helped us find solutions to create a functional, interactive, modern website. They communicated openly and were very organized throughout the project. I highly recommend them to any organization and I would work with them again in an instant.

—Allison Linville, Executive Director, Communications And Marketing, Flathead Valley Community College

Problem

Lagging Behind Advancements in Technology

The last redesign of FVCC’s website occurred in 2015. In the seven years since, the marketing and communications needs of the college lagged far behind advancements in web technology and user trends and preferences. The impacts of a pandemic had also online demands for students everywhere. Most egregiously, students and staff alike relied on search engines over their own website search.

FVCC was in need of an easy-to-navigate, mobile-friendly website that delivered relevant information and resources to internal and external stakeholders, including prospective and current students, their family members, the staff and faculty of two separate campuses, donors and volunteers, library patrons, business owners, and community members.

Solution

Mobile-friendly & Easy to Navigate

After dozens of interviews with target audiences and stakeholder groups, Project6 reimagined the website from the ground up and planned for a full content ‘housecleaning’. Hundreds of pages of outdated or confusing content were retired and the remaining content organized intuitively. Layouts are extremely flexible and pages are now infused with excellent photography. The design includes a ‘mega menu’ that enables students to browse the whole site at a glance. Courses and programs are integrated into the site so that students no longer need to reference an external catalog. Accessibility is, of course, a priority.

Result

An Award-winning, Modular Design

Winning two awards shortly after launch (including Best in Show), the updated website leverages a modular approach to design and development. With the updated information architecture, UI/UX improvements, and revised navigation model, the new website reflects the vibrant FVCC brand, its mission, and its students. To top it off, it is a joy to use.

There’s more to explore in our work within the education industry, including work for UCSF, UC Berkeley, and Stanford University.