Redesign Updates – April 1
Thanks so much to everyone who has commented, emailed and called about the ongoing redesign process. We have received invaluable input from students, faculty and staff all across the Vanderbilt community.
Last week, we had an evening focus group with several current Vanderbilt students. They did a card sort for the current Students second level page, and also provided lots of feedback on the homepage redesign. We’re continuing to meet with groups and talk with individuals about their questions and concerns.
Based on your feedback, we’ve already made several adjustments that are visible in the preview pages:
- Using serif fonts for the headers
- Reduced the size of almost all of the text (we haven’t reduced the main navigation bar text – though we’re playing with that!)
- Linking News, Events, VUCast headers
- Flipped the layout on the lower level (News is now on the left, had been on the right)
- Updated search box to have a button with hover effect
Other changes haven’t yet been pushed to the preview pages – but can be seen in the screenshot on the right. We’re still working on navigational issues (both content and functionality); combining the news and events into one section; re-implementing a fat footer that was in a previous wireframe; working with different version of the Vanderbilt logo; and continuing to find ways to include more color on the second levels (in addition to the photography that will be prevalent on all those pages).
As you’ll notice if you read through the comments, design and aesthetics are very subjective. While one group loves whitespace and the openness, others prefer blocked off areas; while one person likes the big elements, another doesn’t. Some love the dropdowns, some don’t. We know it’s impossible to please all of the people all of the time, but we greatly appreciate your feedback. :)
Please continue to share your thoughts in the Comments section – we’ll be taking input through April 9.
April 7th, 2010
This looks a lot better from the 1st iteration! Great changes on the 2nd level combining the news & events. Plus the 2 feature images on the right are much easier to scan and balance the page better.
The new inverted V logo in the top left is much better – definitely keep that one over the gold background one from the 1st version.
The redesign below the 2nd nav bar is better, however I would standardize the height of those columns to make the site have a cleaner ending to the page, so to speak. I would also change the content in the bottom: keep the photographs, change the “your Vanderbilt” column to be the same links as the 1st primary navbar, change quickVU to be the sublinks that sit under each main category. For example, if you are in an “about” page, the links included would be “quick facts” “history of Vanderbilt” etc. That makes it a bit more dynamic and easier to navigate past the home page.
Great work – can’t wait for the new version to be rolled out.
-Riley
May 13th, 2010
Superb Design….Keep up the good work…..Kudos to you :)