Create a new University of Arizona Quickstart website that lets your story shine. We can help.
Before They Visit Campus, They Visit Your Website
For prospective students, parents, faculty and donors, your department’s website is the first — and often only — place they go to learn who you are and what you offer. Before reading a brochure, attending an event or reaching out by email, they visit your website.
Here’s why it’s worth your time to revisit your website:
1. First impressions shape perception. A cluttered homepage or outdated content can undercut everything you’re working to build. A modern, polished site reinforces your credibility.
2. Today’s audiences expect more. Students, researchers, and faculty are comparing your site not only to other departments — but to the digital experiences they have every day. If your site feels dated, button-heavy or hard to use on mobile, you risk losing their interest.
3. Your department’s achievements deserve the spotlight. From groundbreaking faculty research to hands-on student experiences and real-world impact across Arizona and beyond, your site should reflect what makes your work special. Too often, that story gets buried beneath confusing navigation or old content.
4. Navigation shouldn’t be a puzzle. Complex menus, scattered buttons or a lack of content structure make it hard for users to find what they need. Clear pathways make a huge difference in engagement.
5. Accessibility is non-negotiable. As a land-grant institution committed to serving all Arizonans, U of A’s websites need to be usable by everyone. Many older sites don’t meet today’s accessibility standards, limiting reach and inclusivity.
6. Visibility starts with search. If your site isn’t mobile-optimized, fast or structured with search in mind, it’s harder for students, faculty and the public to find you. Strong SEO is essential.
7. Staying on platform strengthens everyone. Sites built outside the Arizona-supported Quickstart platform are harder to maintain and often miss critical updates. Quickstart isn’t just a CMS — it’s a shared infrastructure that ensures consistency, security and support.
8. Recruitment starts here. From undergrads choosing their major to Ph.D. candidates looking for the right mentor, your website is a key resource. A clear, up-to-date site helps your department stand out — and supports the university’s broader enrollment goals.
As an approved vendor for the University of Arizona, Casual Astronaut (C/A) has helped university teams bring their missions to life.
Let’s Talk About Your Website
Share a few details and we’ll connect with ideas, inspiration and ways to make your site work harder.
BIO5 Institute
Admissions in Español
Space Initiatives
What We Do
Strategy
- Website Analysis & Research
- Editorial Planning & Content Strategy
- Distribution & Email Strategy
- Digital Marketing Strategy
Design & Development
- Information Architecture & Wireframes (UX)
- Website Design (UI)
- Website Development (Quickstart Builds)
- Email Development
- Hosting
Content Creation & Distribution
- Articles & Blog Posts
- Social Media
- Website Copy
- Email Content
- Infographics
- Photography & Video
College, Program & Initiative Websites in Quickstart
As colleges and departments within Arizona make strides to attract new students and faculty, they turn to C/A to create websites that support their efforts. We work with campus-wide programs to create broad initiative-driven websites, grounding our work in university guidelines and industry best practices. Explore recent projects for Undergraduate Majors, the College of Agriculture, Life & Environmental Sciences and the University Center for Assessment, Teaching & Technology.
Getting Started
At Casual Astronaut, we do not take a one-size-fits-all approach to creating Arizona websites. We start with a conversation to understand your goals and vision:
1. Needs & Goals
For every website project, we begin by listening to your priorities and goals during a scoping call. Our job as your partner is to provide the guidance, recommendations and expertise needed to accomplish these objectives. We’ll ensure we prioritize user needs, leveraging thoughtful content and design to engage and convert users. Our recommendations are made in the interest of designing unique websites that are effective, scalable and easy to update and expand.
2. Audiences & Actions
As part of our scoping call, we’ll learn more about your target audiences and help prioritize each — determining specific efforts for communicating your message to each. We’ll help ensure university teams and stakeholders are aligned on the intended audiences and actions.
3. Timeline & Budget
We also ask each team if they have a specific budget and timeline in mind. Based on those needs, we’ll craft a scope that achieves project objectives, scaling project deliverables to stay within budget. As we plot out a timeline, we work with your team to understand key milestones or campus-specific dates, which we know can be a challenge to navigate with holidays, semester schedules and school activities.
4. Next Steps
Once the scoping call is complete, we create a proposal that outlines our recommendations and estimates for the project. We aim to get that proposal to your team within a week so we can get the project started as soon as possible.
Our Process for Website Projects
1. Discovery
C/A kicks off each website project with a workshop with the core project team (both ours and yours). Goals, priorities, audiences and the project scope are outlined, giving us the foundation needed to begin framing initial deliverables. Project timelines and the review process are also discussed.
2. Design
There are three major milestones during the Design phase:
- Sitemap: Using information gathered from the Discovery phase, we develop a proposed site structure that organizes content, navigation and user flow for the new website. This document serves as a map for the site and its content.
- Wireframes: After the sitemap is approved, we deliver a set of wireframes to serve as a “blueprint” that plots out key elements a user will interact with inside each page template.
- Design: Once the wireframes are approved, we design the new site, leveraging the university’s Quickstart platform, established branding and incorporating user experience enhancements based on the wireframes.
3. Development
Upon approval of the designs, we can either handover files to an internal university team for building — or our team can build the website, leveraging the university’s Arizona Sites platform. As part of the Development phase, C/A can manage several aspects of the site-building process, including:
- Content population
- Link setup (utility, anchor, etc.)
- News importer
- Proposal submission portal
4. Testing
After the site is built, we test it to ensure it meets the requirements and design specifications, as well as for basic accessibility and compatibility with key devices. This includes:
- Confirming links are set up correctly
- Pages/modules respond properly (as pre-established in Arizona Sites) on various screen sizes
- Verifying page info (site name, site email and Google Analytics)
5. Deployment
After the website has been tested for quality assurance and it’s ready to go, your team submits a request to Campus Web Services to push the new site live.
Have questions? Need a recommendation?
Frank Camp
Director of Marketing Strategy
University Marketing & Communications
Jenna Rutschman
Director of Marketing Strategy, Colleges
University Marketing & Communications
As an approved vendor for the University of Arizona, Casual Astronaut has helped university teams bring their missions to life.
Why Select Casual Astronaut to Design Your Website?
The University of Arizona has a rich history in the fields of education, research and innovation. Its websites are often a first impression of the university for prospective students and faculty, as well as for peers at other academic institutions, parents, media and the larger community. C/A helps create user-centric websites that position Arizona’s myriad colleges and programs as leaders in academia. During our 8-year partnership, we’ve helped with numerous projects, ranging from digital marketing initiatives to designing more than 40 websites in the Quickstart environment.
About Casual Astronaut
Arizona-based Casual Astronaut is a content and digital marketing agency that helps brands develop deeper and more meaningful relationships with their customers. We marry strategy, design, content and digital know-how to attract prospective visitors at key moments in the consumer journey — and ultimately to drive engagement and action. Our team, which includes Arizona alumni, relies on years of experience to create sound strategies, websites and digital marketing campaigns that deliver results. C/A understands the unique challenges facing higher-education institutions. And with a variety of clients in the educational, nonprofit, healthcare and cultural institutions, we have unique experience at the cross section of university work.