Four years ago, we redesigned the Carleton.ca home page and it has served us well by bringing in over 100,000 visitors each month.
However, four years is a long time in the digital world and we are happy to say that it’s time for a fresh new look.
When approaching the refresh, the Department of University Communications and the Web Services Department within ITS looked at research on user behavior and preferences, best practices, and trends in web design.
What Will Not Change
Although the design has changed, the goals of the website have not.
From a content perspective, the new home page will continue to:
- Showcase Carleton as a leading university
- Attract new students
- Provide a gateway for visitors to easy navigate to the information they need
From a design perspective, as with the previous design, the team worked to create a site that is:
- Accessible/AODA compliant
- Mobile Friendly
- Reliable and Fast
What Will Change
Here are five key things that will change on the carleton.ca home page:
- It will be brighter. The dark background will be lighter.
- The search bar will be moved to the top of the navigation. Although a frequently used feature, the search bar proved to be challenging when working with home page images.
- Login links to cuLearn, Carleton Central, Portal, and Library will be moved. A new ‘Jump to” drop down menu that shortcuts to these pages will appear at the top right.
- Tabs will be gone. Information will no longer be hidden behind tabs that require clicking.
- New content sections will be added. This includes a video section, curated events to better showcase what’s going on at Carleton, and social media integration.
Want to see what it looks like? Come to our home page reveal event on May 16th!