Finalsite Launches New Website

Glastonbury, CT - Now first things first: apologies for the more-than-one-month blog hiatus. When they say there's no good time for a redesign, there's really no good time for a redesign. But, we allowed it to take precedence over our other marketing duties. So, amidst a re-brand of our online learning management system, planning for our 10th annual FinalsiteU, working on new videos, planning conferences, and of course, launching this website, somewhere along the way keeping up with the daily posts slipped through the cracks. And we're sorry.

But with lots of ideas in mind from chatting with clients at FinalsiteU — and this awesome new fancy shmancy blog to post them on — we are back in action!

Okay, now, back to the new Finalsite.com. We are so excited to officially launch our new website, and that's an understatement. You can most likely hear the sighs of relief over here at HQ from California.

But hey, we know you know that feeling. The past six months were a whirlwind of creating designs and then scrapping them; writing new content and over-analyzing the old; creating dozens of new graphics; and perfecting every last pixel until after everyone else had gone home.

With that being said, here is what we're most excited about.

Being on Composer!!!!!

As we mentioned a couple of weeks ago in our blog post about redesigning on Composer (link), we pushed our new CMS to its limits to see how much we could bend it to meet the needs of our custom design. And we're not only impressed with how flexible Composer really is, but the interface is so easy to use that we can make updates in seconds. Literally, seconds.

A more mobile-friendly design.

Yes, our old website was responsive. But as new best practices and web trends revealed in the past year, it's all about having scrolling and panel layouts for the optimal experience on desktop, tablet and smartphone. Each page of our new website is designed in panels — improving organization, flow, and the experience for end users on every device.

A cleaner, brighter look.

While the dark, bold colors on our old site still play a huge part in our brand — this time around, we went for a brighter, cleaner look. And we love it. Bringing in our full-color logo, our fun brand colors, like raspberry pink and teal, our website's design truly expresses who we are as a company: fun, modern, cheerful, and surely not afraid to take risks.

Our new company video.

Did you miss the little play button in the header on our new homepage? Give it a click and watch our new "About Finalsite" video. You'll see some familiar faces!

A home for all of our resources.

Downloadable datasheets, whitepapers, on-demand webinars, infographics, and case studies can all be found under the brand new "Resources" tab in our navigation. And now that we have an organized place to put everything, you can bet we'll be adding content more frequently!

Check it out here: finalsite.com/resources/best-practices.

A new portfolio.

Choosing which school websites to feature isn't easy. We <3 all of our clients, and think each and every website we launch is amazing! Our new portfolio allows us to showcase more schools and their websites, without looking cluttered.

Check it out here: finalsite.com/services/design/design-portfolio.

The re-brand of our LMS and Group Spaces.

Last, but certainly not least, Finalsite's online learning management system received an official name and logo right before FinalsiteU. (So, if you were at FinalsiteU, this may be old news to you!)

Finalsite's LMS is now called Finalsite Learn. In an effort to streamline our different products, Learn's hand-drawn logo and action-driven name flows with those of Composer and Apply.

Why the change?

Over the past year, Finalsite's online learning management system has become more robust and flexible. Integrations with Google Drive and Crocodoc have made uploading and grading assignments simple, while Gradebook and attendance have made monotonous tasks easier. In addition, Learn's Group Spaces — which make it affordable and possible to connect all school groups, like athletics and clubs, online — have also taken off in popularity. So, as the capacity of our LMS grew, we realized we needed to name it something more meaningful than The Finalsite LMS. Enter, Finalsite Learn.