Lake Superior State University

The Challenge

Lake Superior State University initially partnered with gotcha! for ongoing website management, relying on our team to support updates, fixes, and technical needs their internal team didn’t have the bandwidth to handle.

Through this long-term relationship, it became clear that the university’s website faced deeper structural challenges. Built on early 2000s infrastructure, the site had become increasingly difficult to manage, scale, and maintain.

Content was fragmented across departments and subdomains, with little consistency between colleges. At the same time, individual departments required autonomy — creating tension between centralized control and decentralized needs. Many of these complexities were not fully defined at the outset and were uncovered during discovery.

The Solution

After being selected through an RFP process, gotcha! Led a full website redesign and rebuild — approaching the project as both a technical transformation and organizational restructure.

Led by Reece and Marija, the team handled strategy, discovery, stakeholder alignment, and execution oversight.

Key initiatives included:

• Re-architecting the entire website structure from the ground up
• Consolidating multiple subdomains into a unified digital ecosystem
• Designing a scalable framework to support:
  • 12–13 individual colleges
  • Alumni Association
  • Athletics
• Implementing a governance model that balances:
  • Centralized brand and structural control
  • Decentralized content management for departments
• Redesigning the user experience to be modern, intuitive, and future-ready

The result was a flexible platform that meets both institutional standards and departmental needs.

The Results

• Delivered a fully redesigned, modern university website
• Transformed a fragmented digital presence into a unified ecosystem
• Established a scalable structure supporting multiple colleges and departments
• Improved internal workflows and content management efficiency
• Created a long-term foundation for growth, expansion, and governance

Why It Matters

For large institutions, a website isn’t just a marketing tool; it’s an operational system.

By solving both the technical and organizational challenges, gotcha! helped Lake Superior State University move from a disconnected web presence to a scalable digital infrastructure that supports students, faculty, and administrators alike.

Structure → usability → scalability → long-term growth.

“gotcha! helped us turn a complex, outdated website into a modern, scalable platform that works for every department while maintaining consistency across the university.”

Lake Superior State University
Higher Education