KU celebrated 2008 by unveiling a new home page that features greater use of photography and multimedia through a rotating "billboard" format.

The new home page, www.ku.edu, retains the most popular tools and features like the A to Z directory and a link for alumni, but now offers a large billboard space that allows for photography and multimedia content to tell visitors about KU along with a photo gallery called "Scene on Campus."

The billboard can house as many as eight rotating features at one time, and users can click on one story to learn more. Present features include "When Robots Attack," a video of an engineering class robotics competition, and the first of a four-part series tracking an architecture class and its work in building an environmentally efficient community center for Greensburg, the Kansas community devastated by a tornado last May.

The site's developers will seek ideas from the KU community for feature topics. Daily headlines and events will remain part of the home page as well.

Robin Bedenbaugh, associate director for digital media services at University Relations, said the purpose of the redesign is to maximize the Web's potential while fostering a sense of pride in KU.

“We are expanding the mission of the home page beyond a simple gateway to information lurking underneath. We will strive to report and record the teaching and research going on across the University and highlight the diversity of not only those endeavors, but the people involved in making them happen,” Bedenbaugh said. “The goal is to create a sense of place—a place current students, staff and faculty can be proud of, and a place that prospective students, staff and faculty will want to be.”