Website Redesign Project

For many audiences, our website is their first interaction with CU Denver. It shapes perception, influences enrollment decisions, and reflects our institutional strengths.

Moving our website to cudenver.edu:

• Clarifies who we are.
• Reduces confusion.
• Strengthens our institutional identity.
• Creates a more intuitive and memorable digital front door.

 

This transition aligns our web presence more directly with our name and positions us more competitively in an increasingly digital recruitment landscape.

 

As CU Denver continues to grow and expand its reach, it is essential that our digital presence reflects our identity and ambition. Launching a redesigned website is the perfect time to make this domain change. This change strengthens our recruitment efforts, enhances clarity in the marketplace, and positions us for long-term success.

The redesigned homepage prioritizes prospective students and improves discoverability, navigation, and storytelling.

The homepage will launch this summer (target is July 2026), with a phased transition plan developed by University Communications in partnership with IT for full website migration by 2028. Websites will migrate to the new domain as they are built in CU HyperLynx (Drupal).

Authentication and other systems are not being changed with the web domain change. We are working with IT to minimize any disruptions. Authentication systems are expected to remain stable; any changes will be communicated well in advance.

Department websites will continue operating on ucdenver.edu during transition, with guidance provided for future migration as sites convert to the new web environment, CU HyperLynx. The homepage will have a permanent redirect in place so, even if people go to the old address, they will get to our site.

Not at this time. We are first focusing on the website redesign and web address.

A timeline and brand guidance will be provided to help units update materials strategically rather than immediately.

Redirects will be implemented to preserve core existing URLs and minimize disruption to external traffic and citations.

Core enterprise systems will not be disrupted; any necessary website adjustments will be centrally managed.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) strategy is built into the project, including structured redirects and search optimization planning.

The goal is minimal to no disruption, with launch timing designed to reduce impact.

Yes, brand and communications guidance will accompany the transition.

Please contact us by completing our web form. 

This project is an extension of our brand refresh effort to enhance our website’s storytelling, usability, efficiency, and accessibility. From our research, we found that college and university websites were the most popular resources for prospective students and their parents looking for information about their preferred institutions. Our website is also critical for business needs, and now is an opportune time for us to explore a more unified look and feel, with enhanced user capabilities, to help us better serve our students and meet our mission as a university.

We expect to launch the redesigned main ucdenver.edu website in Summer 2026 and support our community in redesigning their websites from Summer 2026 to Summer 2027.

• User-centered design: The website should have a user-centered design. Whether users are searching for a specific program, looking for general information about CU Denver, or simply exploring, their experience should be seamless and intuitive.
• An accessible website: An accessible website works for all people, including people with disabilities. CU Denver's new website must meet at least AA standards and should be perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust. We expect this site to serve as a model of web accessibility
• Compelling and engaging content: The website should have compelling & engaging content. The design and the content management system must work to elevate the content, creating a sense of unity across various content types.
• Ranks well in search engine results: The website’s content should be optimized for specific search keywords and rank well in all search engine results.
• Track and report on goals: Setup robust tracking on our website that will help us to report in real time.
• Diversity and inclusion: Our core values are diversity & inclusion, and the website must serve a broad global audience. The content should reflect the diversity of the CU Denver community.
• One ecosystem that allows continuous collaboration and is flexible, adaptable, and user-friendly: The website and its content will continue to evolve. The CMS should be flexible, adaptable, and user-friendly to content admins, so we enact institutional priorities effectively and cater to the needs of our community.

All sites selected as part of phase 2 are focused on serving prospective students and are closely connected to the homepage:

Site Name	Site URL
Events – CU Denver	www.ucdenver.edu/events
First Year Experience	www.ucdenver.edu/first-year-experiences
Graduate Education	www.ucdenver.edu/graduate-education
Housing and Dining	www.ucdenver.edu/housing-and-dining
Lynx Central	www.ucdenver.edu/student
Office of the Registrar	www.ucdenver.edu/registrar
Orientation	www.ucdenver.edu/orientation
Pre College Programs	www.ucdenver.edu/pre-college
Student Finances	www.ucdenver.edu/student-finances
Student Life	www.ucdenver.edu/student-life
Transfer Admissions Center	www.ucdenver.edu/transfer
TRiO	www.ucdenver.edu/trio
Undergraduate Admissions	www.ucdenver.edu/undergraduate-admissions
University	www.ucdenver.edu

The redesign prioritizes ADA compliance, mobile responsiveness, and user-centered design principles.

Throughout the project, we will be focused on ensuring compliance with accessibility standards to provide equal access to information for all users, including those with disabilities.

We believe that ensuring accessibility shows our commitment to inclusivity and supports diverse needs. By providing a website that is usable for everyone, we not only serve our community more effectively but also promote a culture of equity and respect, which helps strengthen CU Denver's reputation as a welcoming and inclusive institution.

The goal of the project is to enhance visual design, content, and functionality to create an engaging experience on the CU Denver website. By updating the visual design, we aim to modernize the site's aesthetic and make it more appealing to visitors. Enhancing the content improves user experience and search engine rankings, ensuring that our visitors find what they're looking for. And improving functionality and navigation allows site visitors to access information and complete tasks more efficiently. We believe that these improvements will increase user engagement and reduce the number of people who leave the site quickly, which ultimately boosts our conversions.

Through multiple sessions held in 2024 we heard from our faculty, staff, and students on the features you'd most like to see going forward. Thank you for participating in our community sessions and providing your perspective.

April 2024 Community Input Sessions

We currently operate on a shared service model with CU Anschutz because a lot of our technological capabilities live on the CU Anschutz side of our Office of Information Technology (which is a dual campus unit). We are currently determining how we can work together to efficiently utilize the resources and exploring the process on the CU Denver side so we can shift capabilities. With the website redesign, we will start seeing more instances of webpages representing the separate campuses.

Yes. This was one of our main requirements when we put out a request for proposal to vendors. The new website will have a robust search function that delivers results based on the keywords searched.

We will provide the right tools, templates, knowledge base, and training resources to stakeholders for efficient web development and management.

Having one CMS enhances efficiency and reduces complexity. Currently, CU Denver’s web ecosystem has 4 different content management systems, and this shift will allow for more collaboration across schools, colleges, and units. One CMS is also better for our audience because it helps to create a more seamless experience across all sites. From a staffing perspective, it will be much easier to train subject matter experts (SMEs) in a common set of approaches and standards.

Our aim is to establish unified brand guidelines that would limit the use of colors, typography, logos, wordmarks, and some other design elements across sites. However, we will offer a variety of design templates and elements that reflect the overarching brand but allow for differentiation. UComm will work closely with schools/colleges in strategizing their website redesigns after the main website project is completed.

We will continue to collect more information to fully understand faculty needs and create a plan and timeline on how we can support faculty profiles and websites.

This is an all-campus priority and effort, and we need your contribution along the way. Your input is important, valuable, and essential. Please check our dedicated project webpage regularly or send us your feedback and ideas using this form.

Yes, support and training will be provided by University Communications for those managing web content.

Please contact us by completing our web form.