Portfolio : Events Website
Hundreds of campus and community events can be viewed at events.iupui.edu
On a campus with nearly 40,000 students, faculty and staff, there is plenty of activity. The institution offers a campus events calendar, managed by the IU system but locally maintained by the IUPUI Webmaster. The calendar was plagued with usability problems due to the IU systemwide system's design. The IUPUI Web Team realized the system's limitations and, after speaking with core audiences and campus administration, tackled a redesign of the IUPUI portion of the events calendar in 2005.
Focus groups with students indicate that they are largely unaware of campus events, and this affects their perceptions of the campus. The message that the campus is vibrant wasn't reaching this audience. How does this impact the institution? One word: retention.
The new website, located at events.iupui.edu, was designed with users - and institutional goals - in mind. The website was designed in collaboration with students in a 400-level Herron course, and is intended to look fresh and appeal to students.
Multiple Media is Key
To reach the most students on campus, it is vital to position event data where they look. Simply placing event listings only on just one website - the campus events calendar - will not reach many students. A major element of the 2005 redesign was to allow data to be automatically pushed to other campus websites, and eventually entirely different media.
Event listings can now be found on several websites, including the campus website, OneStart, Student Life & Diversity "Life" website, and other frequently-visited campus pages. Additionally, tech-savvy students can subscribe to RSS Feeds, which allow them to add event listings to their web browser, homepage, or numerous other places.
Schools or departments can easily add event listings to their website, with no maintenance required. This helps further the campus goal of increasing retention, as well as awareness of the campus events we all spend so much time planning. Contact Steve Hodges, Electronic Media Manager, to discuss implementation on your site.
A weekly campus events e-mail is also available to all audiences. Featured campus events are highlighted in the email, with listings from popular event categories included in the email. Users can sign up for the email from the events website.
Civic Collaboration
Perhaps the single largest upgrade to the system was the inclusion of events in Indianapolis. The campus' location is one of it's key advantages, and to our faculty, students and staff, being in a vibrant city means more to do.
We collaborated with the Arts Council of Indianapolis and the Indiana Convention & Visitors Association to automatically import their vast events listings into our campus calendar. Thus, visitors to events.iupui.edu can view events on campus and in the community, clearly illustrating one of IUPUI's key advantages.
