New Southwestern, TBC websites offer enhanced user experience

An enhanced user-friendly and aesthetically pleasing website for Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary launched on April 4, with an updated website for Texas Baptist College that went live today.

“I’m delighted that we are able to launch new websites for Southwestern Seminary and Texas Baptist College, which will well serve current and future students and communicate the mission and identity of this institution to equip students to live their callings,” said David S. Dockery, interim president. “These massive projects have been superbly led by Jaclyn Parrish, Beka Hodges, and their colleagues in the Office of Communications and Campus Technology. I commend them for their tireless efforts, the excellent end products, and the way they have embodied our grace-filled core value in collaborating with faculty and staff in producing these new websites.”

Before beginning the transformation which has been more than a year in the making, the Office of Communication commissioned an audit of the former websites, with the goal of identifying needed improvements in their design. According to Jaclyn Parrish, director of marketing, the team also reviewed feedback from students on what information they most needed from the online presence.

“We wanted high-quality data on where users were getting lost in our navigation, which pages were difficult to understand, and what information was missing,” Parrish explained. “Every change we’ve made to the website was driven by data we uncovered in that research.”

Parrish expressed gratitude for “the deans, department heads, and faculty members who’ve taken the time to review the websites and offer their insights and feedback. Their input has been key to ensuring that these sites were completed with excellence.”

Parrish said the new Southwestern Seminary website features the seminary’s blue and white colors, as were featured on the previous website, but the new shade of blue is softer. The new website also is the next step in the seminary’s “Live Your Calling” brand campaign, while the TBC website features its “Find Your Calling” campaign.

“Every effort has been made to make the website more aesthetically pleasing and intuitive to navigate,” Parrish noted. “Photos are now strategically placed to brighten pages and give viewers a peek into Southwesterner life, but their file sizes have shrunk in order to enable your devices to load content more quickly. The font has been updated for readability, student and faculty testimonies have been added to our degree pages, crucial information has been added to our most-travelled pages, and lines of communication have opened to make contacting our offices easier than ever.”

Parrish, who has served at Southwestern Seminary since 2019, added, “The digital landscape is always changing, and high-quality websites adapt along with those changes. We want to make sure our websites continue to serve our current and future students as well as our faculty, partners, and our staff even as tech companies make constant updates to their hardware, algorithms, and platforms.”

Communications also wants to ensure that future students researching seminary training are able to effectively navigate the websites, Parrish said. “The path through higher education is a challenging one and we want to make sure our website is an on-ramp, not a hurdle,” stated Parrish.

The new website was created in partnership with Thrive, a Fort Worth-based digital marketing agency, and in collaboration with Emil Handke, Southwestern’s creative director, and the seminary’s graphic designers.

“This project was massive and complex and would not have been made possible without Rebekah Hodges, our associate director of marketing and alumni engagement, as well as Wesley Chelette, our web developer, who both worked with truly shocking speed and efficiency to keep the myriad of details on track for our deadline,” said Parrish.

“Wherever you land on our website, our goal is to help you quickly and efficiently find what you seek and take the actions you need,” Parrish concluded. “Whether you are exploring Master of Divinity options or contacting Student Financial Services, know that this website was built to help you get equipped to live your calling.”