What You See is Not the Real Design

At some point, most people who view our prototype of the new site want to talk about its visual aspects. However, while the videos and screen shots on this blog show what looks to be a finished website, it's not. The prototype is meant to look and act as real as possible so we can communicate our ideas and concepts in the most true-to-life way possible. That means we have to give it a visual look of some sort. But while you view the work, don't assume the colors, layout, fonts or other visual aspects are final.

At this early stage, we want to focus our efforts and discussions on the underlying principles of the site such as why we should segregate information by audience type or why we should organizing academic information around degree programs instead of departments, schools, colleges, and divisions. Only after this work is finalized will we then move into design explorations.

How Would You Group All of DU's Degree Programs?

The heart of the new DU site for prospective students is finding the degree program of your choice. We accomplish this through our "find a degree by subject" tool.

The question then becomes what is the best way to group all of DU's academic programs from a subject point of view? Here's one way to do it. The information in parenthesis could be listed out in the chart as a helpful addition, but I add it mainly to show what I would place in some groups.

• Arts, Performing & Visual (art, design, music, theater)
• Business (all the Daniels programs, economics)
• Communications (MCOM, HCOM, journalism)
• Education
• Engineering & Computers
• Humanities (philosophy, religious studies, languages & literature)
• International Studies
• Law
• Natural Sciences & Math
• Political Science & Public Policy (maybe listed under social science
  below?)
• Social Sciences (psychology, anthropology, sociology, social work, criminology)

One thing to consider is whether to place a program in more than two places if its curriculum blurs across the chosen topics. For example (and this might be a bad example but bear with me), marketing could be listed under both business and communications because of its association with advertising. I don't think there are a lot of programs that would be listed multiple times, but it should be a tactic we use if it helps students find a program.

Of course, we'll test our ideas, but we need a place to start and here it is. As always, please add your thoughts.