Last modified: Monday, March 24, 2003
IU unveils new Web site with resources for educators, business leaders, students and alumni
Indiana University today (March 24) at noon debuted a new gateway Web site, which will provide online visitors with even easier access to the information they need about IU and its eight campuses.
Visitors to the site -- located at https://www.indiana.edu -- will find that it provides them with quick and direct access to useful university resources for K-12 school educators, prospective students, alumni, business partners, donors, faculty and staff.
The IU gateway site is one of the most visited Web sites in the university system, receiving as many as 780,000 page views a month, including more than 550,000 by people outside IU. The gateway site provides information about the campuses, describes partnerships between the university and businesses throughout the state, and reinforces ties between IU and the communities where it has campuses.
"We wanted the IU gateway site to be a site visitors are eager to return to," said Lisa Townsend, executive director of the IU Office of Communications and Marketing. "IU has so much to be proud of, including excellent faculty engaged in ground-breaking research and a plethora of programs with national acclaim, and we wanted the gateway site to reflect the breadth and depth of all that goes on at IU."
Navigation for the site has been greatly improved, with the addition of pop-up menus and updated facts and relevant information on secondary Web sites about a wide range of topics, including academics, arts and culture, athletics, computing and international resources.
Special emphasis has been added to provide information on IU's medical and research centers, a key component to university efforts to energize the state's economy. The new "spotlight" feature will highlight world-class people, programs and events at IU. A new character, "dot.IU guy," will take users to "Advancing Indiana," another Web site that shows how the university is improving the lives of all Hoosiers.
Also included is a link to a new site with information for Americans who are interested in studying abroad and for international students wanting to study at IU. The new site also provides information that should help business people, educational organizations and communities make sure they are prepared for today's international environment.
IU is the largest provider of teachers for the state of Indiana. In addition to offering outstanding teacher preparation and continuing education for teachers, the site also features a link to more information on how IU offers resources to support teachers in the classroom and forms partnerships with public schools and communities to improve education in Indiana and beyond our state. The site also includes resources for families home-schooling their children.
The redesign, which began in early December, is the first major upgrade to the university gateway site in two years and involved a cross-functional team of professionals from the IU Office of Communications and Marketing, IU Media Relations, the IU vice president for public affairs and government relations, University Information Technology Services and the IU School of Medicine. Usability testing was done at IU's Bloomington and Indianapolis campuses with journalists, business and community leaders, prospective students and their parents.
