Graphic Communication Department Website

The need to redesign the Graphic Communication (GrC) department page was very apparent, considering it had been over a decade since its creation. The current design does not accurately reflect the design capabilities of its students at all. The Department Chair, Colleen Twomey, expressed dissatisfaction with the existing site and sought a revamp. View the original website here.

Our goal was to improve the site's usability and accurately convey the essence of GrC at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. We conducted a literature review on heuristic evaluations of other university websites, identifying issues such as excessive jargon and limits caused by university branding guidelines. We did further research with site users, including faculty and students, revealing the need for content segmentation, improved navigation and hierarchy, and a means to educate new visitors about GrC. 

After analyzing our findings, we composed a high-level prototype that underwent multiple rounds of user testing. From interviewing peers and professors on the new prototype, we received a very positive response saying the new design was much more intuitive. Notably, users took 10-15 seconds less to navigate to their desired destinations, proving the effectiveness of the new design. 

We created the prototype as a template, in hopes that a future GrC student will take on the next steps of obtaining permission from the Dean of the College of Liberal Arts to implement the new design.

View the full prototype of the new website design or read our research paper below: