Revamped Purdue home page includes new tile layout and photo banner

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A redesigned version of Purdue's home page includes a new tile layout, a user-submitted photo banner that changes daily, and a more flexible design.

The redesigned home page at www.purdue.edu will provide users with a cleaner design and links that present desired information quickly and more efficiently.

In addition, a new campaign called Picture Your Purdue will accept user-submitted photography from students, alumni, faculty, staff and the Purdue community. Each day a new image will be featured on the Purdue home page from one of the submissions. The photo campaign launched Aug. 16. More information about Picture Your Purdue, including a submission form, can be found here.

This redesign was needed to keep the look and feel of the website fresh and current. According to Garrett Bingaman, senior multimedia and user experience designer in the Office of Marketing and Media, the previous design featured many tiles, photos, colors and text, which sometimes got overwhelming and lacked a clear focal point. Numerous rounds of user testing with audiences revealed what was or wasn’t working in the old layout and what could be improved in a redesign.

“The philosophy behind this redesign was showcasing our great university with large photos and fresh content all within a clean design that enables users to quickly find what they are looking for,” Bingaman says. “Before, our goal was to provide users with the doors they needed to find what they were looking for. With this being the main website for the university, I wanted to be sure we provided those doors while providing a large window to our great campus.”

A social media feed and a news and events section have been added to the home page to better present information audiences are interested in without overcrowding the layout.

A phase two of the website redesign is coming and will include a customization feature. This will allow users to identify what type of content they would like to see on their home page and save it for future visits.

“Giving users complete control over what they want to display on their home page will keep them consistently coming back,” Bingaman says.

Phase one of the website redesign debuted Aug. 21. Phase two will launch in late 2017.

Writer: Kelsey Schnieders, kschnied@purdue.edu