When reviewing the noteworthy sites from the last 18 months some trends come up quite quickly. Center and left biased menus are very common because they lead your eye to the heart of the page. Many sites use a fairly large graphic that takes anywhere from a quarter to half of the page above the fold. What can the past noteworthy sites tell us about what could be noteworthy in the future? Well first of all, designers are getting to try some new ideas. A great many of the newest pages are trying a more visual style that has become very popular in commercial websites. As the integration of the web continues in to every aspect of our lives Universities are becoming more willing to break new ground. They want to be unique, just look at the noteworthy sites like Loyola-Marymount and Boston University; they are breaking new ground for Higher Ed websites. Now don’t get me wrong this seems to be just beginning and may take some time to get to your institution, but be patient.
About the Author
Andy has been interested in design and multimedia for several years. He has been working part time and blogging for eduStyle since early 2007. He is currently co-authoring "The eduStyle Guide to Usable Higher Ed Homepage Design."
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Other posts by Andy Foss
June 13th, 2008 at 11:01 am
[...] A new look for college websites? The eduStyle blog, always a great resource for web ideas, discusses some visual trends and points to refreshing new interfaces from Boston University and Loyola-Marymount. Could these sites and their navigation structures signal the next wave in university web design? Bonus link: the top five websites on eduStyle with zero votes. [...]
June 13th, 2008 at 3:36 pm
[...] 13, 2008 The post “The future face of Higher Ed websites?” on eduStyle this morning got me thinking. I have been wondering about the redesign project [...]
June 13th, 2008 at 4:51 pm
I’m surprised Brown didn’t make the example list…
What do you have against vertical coolness?