A few weeks ago, I wrote a post about research landing pages on university websites. As background for that blog post, I visited the websites of many large, research-focused universities, including Georgia Tech. I was drawn to (and shared) some compelling copy from Georgia Tech’s Research landing page. At the time, I didn’t know Georgia Tech was about to launch a newly-designed research section!
A few days after publishing that post, I heard from Kirk Englehardt, director of research communication. Kirk pointed me to Georgia Tech’s new research web pages and I want to share this follow up post as an additional resource for those who may be planning for new research landing pages. The team responsible for the new site:
- Relied on market research for planning.
- Tied decisions to the university’s research strategy.
- Created content targeted to the industry audience.
For the big reveal, here’s the old landing page:
Here’s the new one:
Gems from Georgia Tech’s new Research site
- The site’s simple navigation set creates a focus on industry collaboration and core research ideas. It makes external audiences a priority.
- The amount of copy is reduced by about half from the prior site. The new content is more visual and more engaging.
- The externally-focused Industry Collaboration page presents the idea of recruiting top students. Georgia Tech’s “next big breakthroughs” are presented well on the Core Research Ideas page.
- Pages for each of the core research areas include information on partnerships and outreach, sidebar content about research facilities and institutes, and related news. See Manufacturing, Trade, and Logistics as an example.
- The News includes links to a research magazine and an undergraduate research journal. (The landing page for Georgia Tech Research Horizons is also well done.) The latest content from Research Horizons also appears on the homepage and is sprinkled throughout the site.
- The Creating the Next video is a storytelling piece featuring researchers talking about how they’re creating the next….
Kudos to the team @georgiatech!
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