Purdue launches redesigned website to better serve users

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Redesigned versions of Purdue's home page and connected pages launched Monday (Aug. 4), and they feature responsive design for mobile devices, an easier navigation system and simpler content layout that focuses on the university's core audiences.

The redesigned home page (www.purdue.edu) provides users with quick links to new landing pages that present desired information quickly and more efficiently. This audience-focused approach is meant to improve user experience, says Martin Sickafoose, director of digital marketing in the Office of Marketing and Media.

"With the redesigned home page, visitors to Purdue.edu can identify the audience to which they belong and quickly find relevant and shareable content," Sickafoose says.

"From now on, behind the scenes, we'll be refining the content and improving the search mechanisms that will allow us to build a stronger user experience, improve our visibility to search engines and ultimately drive more traffic to our website."

Developed by Marketing and Media's Digital Marketing team, the redesigned home page features a tiled design that allows users to identify the audience path they wish to explore. The page's main navigation also directs users to topic pages, which are built similarly to the audience pages.

The redesigned pages are compatible with all Web-browsing devices, including smartphones, tablets, laptops and desktops. The page also scales to display the same content on all devices.

Creating this capability was a priority, Sickafoose says, because Purdue's research shows that in the past year mobile and tablet traffic to the home page has increased 49 percent and 44 percent, respectively, from the previous year. According to Purdue's analytics, the home page has generally been viewed nearly 20 percent more often in the past year than in the previous year.

Additionally, tests indicate that the redesigned pages load more quickly than their predecessors and have achieved a near-perfect score on Google's mobile user experience test, Sickafoose says.

The pages will continue to evolve, Sickafoose says, as Digital Marketing gathers user data from the site. Marketing and Media also will implement testing to determine how users typically interact with the pages with the goal of delivering relevant content and increasing audience engagement.

Some Purdue websites with the same branded design and format as the home page also launched Monday, including the Office of the President's page. Several Purdue websites will debut the template in the coming weeks. 

Writer: Amanda Hamon Kunz, 765-496-1325, ahamon@purdue.edu