Pitt website made user-friendly

Technology is fast-paced and constantly improving. But until last month, you wouldn’t have known it from checking Pitt’s website.

Over winter break, the University relaunched its website with a new design meant to keep up with changing times.

John Cooper, director of web communications, explained that Pitt’s old website and home page was constructed for computers designed at the start of the millenium. Specifically, Cooper said, the old home page was developed for smaller screens.

But during the subsequent decade, the web greatly evolved, leaving the old website obsolete.

“By making the site fit the current standard of 960 pixels wide, we can get more menu items while also maintaining a site that’s not overwhelming for people,” he said.

Around August 2011, multiple parties collaborated in an effort to update pitt.edu. Cooper said developers and producers in Pitt’s marketing communications department worked with members of the Office of the Provost and the web division of the marketing communications office to bring the home page project to completion.

“Things ramped up in terms of design content production last spring, in April,” he said.

Although Cooper was unable to provide a dollar amount for the cost of the website reconstruction, he did say that any costs would have gone toward paying for the time of those who worked on the project.

Apart from these departments, focus groups made up of students, faculty and staff took part in the website design process. Prospective students and parents also provided insight through a survey.

While working on improving pitt.edu, prospective students were considered the primary audience, as the majority of the site’s traffic comes from outside the University.

Cooper said the main purpose of the redesign project was to keep up with technology and make the website user-friendly. He explained that a person’s online experience will directly affect their feelings about the University and its overall brand.

“Hopefully, people will view this page and feel that Pitt’s a friendly and modern University, that it communicates with its constituents effectively and that they come away with a good feeling and what they were looking for,” he said.

Before implementing any changes, Cooper and his team looked at numerous other university and college home pages and commercial sites.

Carnegie Mellon’s home page, for example, offers links to frequently visited portions of the website and a section to view recent news and events — two elements Pitt chose to incorporate into its new home page’s design.

Cooper said they primarily researched the websites of other universities that are a part of the Association of American Universities, as they are most similar to Pitt.

“We took a look to benchmark against them … to see what types of links and navigation items they had,” he said.

By comparing and evaluating other university home pages, Cooper said his team developed a sense of what the expectations would be for the site’s visitors.

Some students who recently visited the updated site expressed satisfaction with the changes.

Sophomore Shane Kelleher said he experienced difficulty with navigating the old site.

“The new one seems more user-friendly,” he said.

Sophomore Luke Burke agreed that the new website has improved from its former format.

“It’s a more modernistic approach to the old website. It brings Pitt up to par with the advancement of technology itself,” he said.

Pitt.edu is now also better optimized for tablets and mobile devices. Cooper said the menu will automatically adapt to each respective device. For example, on a mobile phone screen, it will convert to a vertical design.

The new home page also incorporates a better system for University webmasters to maintain the information online.

“Since its easier to maintain, it’ll be kept up to date more frequently,” Cooper said.

Cooper said the website is a work in progress and that the web communication department is looking forward to further refining the website in the coming months and years.

“We’re going to be in a better position to keep it moving forward and not let it become stale,” he said. “Anything you produce that you’re involved in, you’re always looking at problems and things you want to make better.”