Today@Dal

On Wednesday, August 27 the Web Team will be launching a responsive (mobile-friendly) version of the dal.ca homepage. With the launch of the responsive homepage, the majority of dal.ca will be optimized for desktop, mobile and tablet viewing.

What does it mean to be responsive?
The goal of responsive website design is to provide an optimal viewing experience — easy reading and navigation with a minimum of resizing, panning, and scrolling — across a wide range of devices (from mobile phones to desktop computer monitors).

Offering a responsive website is a key priority and its importance for our primary audience (prospective students) is supported by research. For example, a national classroom-based survey of 5,436 Canadian students conducted by MediaSmarts in 2013 found that 85% of grade 11 students owned a cell/smart phone—and they use it to access the Internet 75% of the time.

What has changed?
In order to enable responsive viewing, the design of the dal.ca homepage required slight alterations. You’ll notice the biggest difference in the sliding image — the boxes that were layered over the image have been moved below the image. As have our key prospective student links (explore programs, apply now, contact and advisor and book a tour).

What’s next?
Though the majority of the main dal.ca site is now responsive, some pages (such as event calendars) are not yet responsive and we continue to work on these pieces.

If you have any questions, please contact the Web Team at www@dal.ca.