The Institute Launches New Website

Following guidance from faculty, students, and professional best practices, the Institute launched its latest website in September.

The new site emphasizes helping prospective students understand the Institute's work and community environment, as well as continuing news and event information offerings for those already a part of the Institute.

Student focus groups, plus faculty and staff reviews governed the new design and content. University guidelines and current best practices for university websites also contributed to the website's direction.

It comes as no surprise the number one source of information for prospective students remains website visits. Our students confirmed this practice, so the new website offers immediate perspective on both student life and alumni opportunities. Colors, fonts, and design elements were selected to elicit UT's brand, and smooth the transition from the university's site to the Institute, a common digital path for prospective students.

Recalling their school selection decisions, current students remembered a strong interest in student research projects. The "CSEM Student Bio Spotlight" addresses this request, and as time allows, more students will be asked to provide biographical material for their profiles.

Continued strong readership of our story, "What’s the difference between computational science and computer science?" compelled its position on the homepage. The story is Google's top-ranked story and Google's direct link for that question. In addition, since its publication in 2014, it has remained the most-read story on our website every month.

Google analytics drove many decisions on the site, and the Institute's long practice of regularly reviewing analytics has also proven the wisdom of some of the elements on the previous site. Menus have remained the same. News, feature stories, and events remain highly visible, and give visitors a sense of the active and broadly-recognized academic life at the Institute.

Story written by Becky Rische