For the first time in 12 years, the University is undertaking the work of a comprehensive website redesign for drake.edu. This process has been informed by significant audience and usability research and has entailed collaboration between our partner Carnegie, University Communications and Marketing (UCM), and Information Technology Services (ITS)—all with input from individuals in each college/school and nearly every University department. 

Evaluating the need for a website redesign began in 2024, at which point the site had not only grown to more than 5,000 pages—many of which were outdated, duplicative, or contained errors—but more broadly, the site had significant room to grow in terms of accessibility, usability best practices, and ease of navigation. The new site will improve the experience for prospective students and families seeking information to aid in their college search decisions, while providing the opportunity to streamline access to content most relevant to faculty, staff, and students via a refreshed internal site structure. The end result will be an enrollment-first destination for prospective students and families with a focus on usability best practices, enhanced content and functionality, updated branding, and modern accessibility standards.  

The new site will launch in Summer 2026—prior to which we will issue further communications and introduce a new internal resource site to keep faculty, staff, and students informed of progress and next steps.  

While this site will become more robust in time, in the short-term, you can find information about the five-phase approach for the new website, including a detailed description of what’s been completed, what’s underway, and what comes next. Before the end of the semester, we will update this internal resource site and communicate need-to-know information about how the new site will be managed, as well as where some of the previously housed information on the current site is being moved to internal sites. 

The UCM and ITS teams would like to thank the many individuals across the University who have contributed to this project’s success. 

Learn more at our internal resource site.

— John Krantz, University Communications & Marketing