Introducing a fresh look to the Brandeis homepage

New design is a larger, fresher, easier-to-navigate entrance to the university website

Brandeis has a new homepage. 

Over the last several months, the Office of Communications and Library & Technology Services have been working to create a fresher and easier-to-navigate point of entrance to the university's website. The new page launched Wednesday night and is the latest step in the ongoing transformation of the university's web presence.

"The changes you'll see here are much more evolutionary than revolutionary," says Bill Burger, associate vice president of communications. "While the overall look of the page is very different, and it contains quite a few new features, we also retained a number of design and navigational elements from the previous homepage. That was essential because the organization of the site as a whole remains unchanged for now."

Many of the differences between the old and new designs will be apparent immediately. The new page is about 30 percent wider, which gives it a lighter and less dense feel, while offering more content and links. The top of the page is devoted to stories intended to capture some of the unique and compelling aspects of the university. Most of the stories make use of video and more stories will be added to the current set in the months ahead.

Campus news and events have a more prominent place on the page and, together, give visitors a sense of the amount and variety of activity at Brandeis.

A new Spotlight feature at the bottom of the page highlights other Brandeis websites, sections or pages of interest. At launch there are nine spotlights; more will be added in the future.

A nine-member committee of faculty, staff and students provided valuable guidance throughout the project. The university worked with a Cambridge-based design and web-development firm, OHO Interactive, which also worked on the BrandeisNOW and Brandeis Magazine sites that launched last fall.