Redesigning the College of Science and its department websites
Client: College of Science and its seven departments
Role: Designer and Developer
Purdue Brand Studio redesigned the main Purdue website in 2023-2024, delivering a modern design, improved usability, and stronger alignment with Purdue’s brand identity. In late 2024, Emily Kinsell, Director of Science Marketing and Communications (Science Communications), requested website redesigns for the College of Science and its seven department websites using Purdue Brand Studio's new Cascade templates. We started the redesigns in 2025. Each website redesign took 3-4 months to complete. I worked with Science Communications, department staff, and Purdue IT application and web developers.
Redesigned websites:
- College of Science
- Department of Computer Science
- Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences
- Department of Biological Sciences
College of Science
In January 2025, I received a template site from Purdue Brand Studio and began familiarizing myself with the new design, its layouts, and components. Next, I gathered info on site access, made a list of existing site layouts, and reviewed analytics from the past academic year. I also met with Emily and Cheryl Pierce from Science Communications to discuss the modern design, its layout options, its flexibility, and its limitations. I worked with Emily and Cheryl to create eight demo pages, gaining a much better understanding of the new design in the process.
The site development was challenging for several reasons:
- The previous design used an old version of the Bootstrap framework, while the new design has modern and customized CSS and JavaScript. I also needed to research and add styling for several layout components, including accordions, block quotes, lists, side navigation, and tables.
- The College site has five large customized sections: about (including news), alumni, career development, current students, and outreach.
- I worked with Cheryl to redesign the Science News page, two Future Students pages, the Purdue Science Indianapolis page, and the Student Experience page. I also collaborated with Noah Davis and Josh Church from Purdue IT to redesign the Science Administration directory page using an image card layout, category filters, and a search function.
On May 12, I launched the redesigned College of Science website.
Department of Computer Science
The next website redesign was Computer Science (CS), one of the largest departments in the College of Science. I worked with Emily and Molly Walker from Science Communications to build seven demo pages, including the redesigned CS News page, which uses an image card layout. I also worked with several CS staff groups:
- CS Corporate Partners Program with John Langenkamp and Pat Morgan. They needed to simplify their section’s navigation, redesign several pages, create new pages, and delete old content.
- CS Office of Student Experience with Amber Stanley and her team. I created a brand new section with one landing page and seven sub-pages.
- CS Recruiting with Leah Thompson. Four pages needed to be redesigned.
The CS department website has several large sections:
- About section: the CS Women's History Month and CS 60th anniversary sections required custom redesigns.
- News section: contains 25 years of news articles.
- People and research sections: these areas were redesigned and overhauled in 2024, and the design needed to be preserved. I worked with Dan Trinkle from the department, along with Noah Davis and Josh Church from Purdue IT, to update these areas.
On August 11, I launched the redesigned Computer Science website.
Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences
The third department website redesign was Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences (EAPS). I worked with Cheryl and David Siple from Science Communications to build six demo pages, including several options for the EAPS home page.
The EAPS website has several large sections: 20 years of news, people, and research. Emily also requested that each department’s people directory and profile pages be redesigned to match the CS website’s, which were redesigned and overhauled in 2024.
EAPS’ people information is maintained in the College of Science People application (which is also used by four other departments). When updates are made, the changes are dynamically added to the website. I worked with Larissa Budreau from Purdue IT to implement these changes. Larissa expanded the photo functionality to add large landscape photos. We also needed to maintain the legacy photo functionality for the other departments. After a successful demo with Cheryl and David, Larissa and I went through several rounds of development, review, and testing on the directory and profile pages. Cheryl and David gave me new photos for faculty, staff, and other groups.
On December 8, 2025, I launched the redesigned EAPS website.
Visit the Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences website
Department of Biological Sciences
The fourth department website redesign was Biological Sciences (Biology), and I began in January 2026. I worked with Cheryl and Alisha Willett from Science Communications to build a dozen demo pages, including several options for the Biology home page and research area pages.
The Biology website has several big sections: academic programs, news, people, and research. The department also uses the College of Science People application. I worked with Larissa Budreau in Purdue IT to expand the new landscape photo functionality to Biology and rebuild the people directory and profile pages. Alisha gave me new photos of faculty, staff, and other groups. I also redesigned research area pages like Cell and Molecular Biology with four sections: hero image, about, faculty directory (information pulled from the College of Science People application), and research area news.
On April 7, 2026, I launched the redesigned Biology website.