This past summer, Web Services and the Dean of Students office redesigned Carleton’s “homepage” for students, the Student Gateway. This page is a critical service point to all of Carleton’s student-oriented services and information, but was long overdue to be refreshed using current design, technology, and best practices.
Before you continue with this article, please open the Student Gateway in a new tab. Feel free to explore the page as you follow along with the tour below.
Our goal
Our goal with this redesign was to provide a way for students to quickly find services and information without needing to know which office or department “owns” that page.
What’s changed?
Everything. There isn’t a spot on the page that was not reconsidered. Here are some highlights:
Search as you type
A fast, find-as-you type search bar that highlights Carleton’s resources for students. Top results don’t even require visting the search results page at all — you get taken immediately to the page you were looking for, saving valuable time.
“Your Dashboard”
“Your Dashboard,” brings together information from a variety of College systems into one place. Since you need to be signed in as a current student to fully experience this section, here is a screenshot of how it looks to a typical student:
Why the dashboard?
Many students told us they wanted to see simple information at a glance without having to spend lots of time diving into different systems. We asked students to rank the various kinds of information that could appear on the page, and made sure to put the top-scoring items on this dashboard.
Customizable, personalized event highlights
This is another tool that you need to sign in as a student to see its’ full capabilities. Here students see upcoming events tailored to them, including:
– Their departmental events (for declared majors & concentrators)
– Major campus events from Carleton Now
– Events for organizations they are involved with
– Any other event calendars they wish to add
Why the event highlights?
The sheer number of events on the Carleton campus can make it hard to find events relevant to you on the central campus calendar. This tool provides a quick view of just the most relevant event calendars to you.
Link Tiles
A grid of links for direct access to frequently needed pages. Some links are perennial — the Hub and the Library, for example. Other links appear at particular times of the academic year, such as New Student Week and Commencement.
Why the link tiles?
We asked students to rank which things they need quick, frequent access to, as well as which things they don’t need all the time — but which are very important when they are needed. Students broadly agreed on a small set of links, which are represented here.
Topical Pages
There are many more links that students need access to from time to time. These we organized into topical pages, which are listed on the left of the Student Gateway.
Your role in the Student Gateway
This site will need your help! All offices and departments that provide services for students are represented here in one way or another, and as your sites and services change we will need to update the Student Gateway to reflect those changes.
Web Services Group and the Dean of Students’ office will be reaching out over the next few months to share how your office or department can make sure that your information and services are represented accurately on the Student Gateway. We look forward to partnering with you on this effort!