The BYU.edu homepage was recently updated and improved, based on the needs of its regular users, by a group of volunteers under the supervision of University Communications.
Brent Harker, campus director of web communications, said he felt the changes were long overdue.
“The last time we changed the website was in January of 2007,” he said. “The website had evolved and grown oversized. It had become more of a hindrance to finding things versus a help.”
But before University Communications did anything it wanted to be sure the changes would benefit users, Harker said.
“We wanted to make changes that would help everyone including the students, the colleges, the faculty, etc.,” he said. “So in May of 2010, we pulled together a lot of volunteers to look at the homepage and come up with better architecture and design for the website.”
The first step was finding out exactly what BYU’s audience wanted.
“We surveyed 9,500 people,” Harker said. “And asked users what they wanted. We also watched what they did on the old site.”
The team Harker put together consisted of more than 65 volunteers from 35 departments on campus. The volunteers were divided into three groups: architecture, design and engineering.
“Our hope is that with all the participation it increases the buy-in university wide,” he said.
Nate Walton, chair of the design committee, said the aesthetic aspect of the website was important.
“We talked a lot about making the site represent the flavor at BYU or what it’s like to be here,” Walton said. “In a nutshell, we were trying to make it easier to use and more beautiful to look at.”
Heather Moss, a sophomore from Jacksonville, Fla., said the new homepage is much more attractive.
“I think it looks awesome,” she said. “The pictures look a lot better. But I hope this doesn’t somehow make me go to it more because I do that enough already.”
