Carnegie Mellon Unveils New Homepage

Carnegie Mellon University launched a redesigned homepage on Wednesday as part of the public announcement of “Make Possible,” CMU’s $2 billion fundraising campaign. The homepage is often the first place visitors from around the globe come seeking information about academics, research and what life is like at CMU. The new cmu.edu showcases the talent, creativity and technological expertise of the university with a clean and engaging layout incorporating elements from the new brand blueprint.

The lead element, or “Cover,” is a looping video that focuses on the CMU experience, using aerial shots of campus spliced with vibrant footage of campus, faculty, researchers and student activities. Scrolling past the “Cover,” the new wordmark square appears and stays with the current navigation bar while perusing the rest of the page. Top news stories will be displayed in a section referred to as “Spotlight” as well as in a news section further down the page. There is a section where CMU stories are told “in depth” that highlight major themes that cross the university.

“We set out to create a homepage that displays the passion and energy of the people that make Carnegie Mellon one-of-a-kind.” — Key Nuttall

There are three sections with “Points of Pride,” where animated icons will break up the content blocks and highlight CMU’s unique culture, its thought-leadership and its faculty, alumni and student awards.

“In the process of reimagining our brand in action, we took a hard look at its main touch points. We set out to create a homepage that displays the passion and energy of the people that make Carnegie Mellon one-of-a-kind,” said Key Nuttall, vice president of Marketing and Communications for CMU.

Homepage analytics show that the majority of visitors to Carnegie Mellon’s homepage are new visitors to the site. The redesign tailors content to appeal to those external audiences, including prospective students, parents and partners, while also giving internal audiences quick access to the links important to them. At this time only CMU’s homepage is changing. The rest of the site’s navigation remains the same, although over time, some graphic elements on the homepage will be available for all sites.

“Carnegie Mellon is a pioneer in combining technology, art and design. We want the homepage to reflect that,” Nuttall said.