This year, I took 15 university or college home pages that had been redesigned within the past year (as posted on eduStyle.net) and had received more positive than negative votes.
Most Common Page Elements
The most notable changes here are the continued climb of events/calendars, and the decline of top banners.
| Element | Sites 2006 | Sites 2007 | Sites 2008 |
| Photos | 100% | 100% | 100% |
| Primary Navigation | 100% | 100% | 100% |
| Search Box | 100% | 94% | 100% |
| News | 85% | 83% | 93% |
| Events | 30% | 67% | 87% |
| Secondary Navigation | 70% | 78% | 73% |
| Feature/Spotlight | 55% | 78% | 73% |
| Top Banner | 90% | 78% | 60% |
| Quick Links | 45% | 22% | 33% |
Page Element Placement
Once again, no huge changes. Some of the overlays look a bit different since I was using a bigger monitor this year to capture the screenshots. Other than that, a few trends, but no major shifts.
- Logos and brands continue to congregate more toward the upper lefthand corner
- Primary navigation is pretty consistently below the brand, either vertically or horizontally
- News is trending a bit more toward the center, and events a bit more further to the right
Top Banner
Identity/Logo 
Search Box
Primary Navigation
Secondary Navigation
Main Photo
Other Photos
Feature Item
News
Events/Calendar
Quick Links
4 comments:
Really interesting post. What is most noticable to me is how similar every site is when you look at the data this way. I've said it before and I'll say it again, Higher Education web is full of followers and very little creative innovation.
Probably one of the reasons I want to redesign our homepage into something wildly different and unique. Will that ever happen... probably not.
Great study. Really like the trending. It'd be interesting to know how many of these schools planned a CMS install at the same time as the redesign and if CMS in general has impacted design/layout choices.
This is great timing! We are currently working on a proposal for a Website re-design for a school. The home page has grown to be “out of control” without a proper hierarchy of elements. Sound familiar?
Nice work and presentation.
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