• Online the institute is conveniently and globally accessible. People will form opinions by visiting the website.

• Online the institute is easily searchable

• Online the institute is annotated

• Online the institute is compressed onto a single small screen

• Online the institute's layers can easily be shown in the manner of presentation

• Online the intangible part of the institute can be shown

• Online the institute can be findable by people who are not specifically looking for IITK or its departments but for good education and good research opportunities in the domains where IITK has a presence

Although the website has a fresh contemporary look and feel, it is brought about very little by intentional design and mostly it is the result of a first principles approach.

We believe a first principles based approach is aligned with the core qualities of IITK as an institution.

So here are the details of this first principles approach.

Principle 1 :The website's primary function is to communicate.

The communication has been divided into three parts.

• Top level assertions

• Showcasing to convey aspects of the institute by examples

• Information that the institute needs to disseminate for its efficient functioning

And here is how the three parts were detailed.

Assertions

IITK is a leading academic institution. Its strengths are widely recognized and it inspires other educational institutions. Including leading educational institutions worldwide. It is therefore proper that IITK states those things that are top priority for the institution because of which the reputation has been built.The priorities identified are:

• That it offers great education

• That it does great research

• That it has a supportive enriching atmosphere on campus

These assertions have been made both in brief on the home page and in depth on the internal pages

Showcasing

Once IITK has asserted its priorities one only needs to inform by example because IITK has so much to showcase.

Aspects to showcase identified are:

• Academic programs

• Approach towards higher education

• Research work

• Consulting work

• Administrative skills

• Innovation in all spheres

• Incubation

• Alumni

• International relations

• Campus life for all segments of the campus community

Information Dissemination

A lot of important information delivery is taken care of by the showcasing part such as for academics related information. For other information delivery there are several paths via dedicated cards and links in drop down menus. The plain information pages are designed in a highly usable, simple and clutter free format.

Principle 2 : The communications on the website should serve all its audiences fairly and information of all types should be easy to find by several different paths that a visitor may take

Since the website serves several key audiences it is important to ensure the needs of all audiences is met adequately.

Therefore, though the communications on the website have an hierarchy, it is kept as flat as possible so that information that is lower down in the hierarchy is quite easy to find as well.

Principle 3 : The information should be thoughtfully detailed to inform the visitor sufficiently without creating an information overload

The internal pages have been planned to be able to give out information in an easy to digest manner and an effort has been made to anticipate the background details a visitor will likely want to know.

Principle 4 : The website should be engaging and encourage the visitor to interact further with the institute

A key measure of success of the website will be if it facilitates better engagement of the institute with its key audiences. The site therefore has an open and welcoming presentation.So how does the above reflect in the various design elements?

Here is a brief explanation for some of the major visible features of the homepage of the website.

1. White logo area with logo on the right - The logo has a solus uncluttered space which gives it stature. Yet it does not interfere with the natural information flow for a visitor who visits the site and is keen to get to a piece of information on the website.

2. Home page slider ( the part with the changing images ) - Here the top level assertions are made along with supporting images.

3. The smart search feature - It makes information on the site easy to find for major site search needs.

4. The webmail link - This is for ease of use for the campus community. We can put a couple of more links in the area such as the link to the library.

5. The tab wise cards - Here the showcasing and information delivery is done in a flattened hierarchy manner. The lower level information have their own easy to spot cards. The cards are grouped in tabs according to expected visitor interest to meet information needs in depth while avoiding information overload. The tabs make the website very open and accessible with all important information based pages easily visible and are just a click or two away.

Here is a brief explanation for some of the other features of the website.

1. The top drop down menu - A horizontal drop down menu is the most efficient way to give access to a large number of links. There is much information that is not covered in the cards and links to that are placed there. Also links to important information pages which are on the cards are included in the top menu as well. This makes information relatively easy to find even though there are so many links on this menu.

2. The bottom menu - This is for mandatory and relatively peripheral information and helps complete the information delivery function.

3. The content on inner pages anticipates visitor needs. Example showcasing equipment along with the research highlights.

The above note is about the approach to the content presentation, look and feel. It does not include first principles for tech related issues. Such as site updates, search engine optimization, site migration, site performance, site security. These also have been kept in mind but are not talked about here.

IITK can inform what all it is about to those who know nothing about it.

The site can make information about IITK easy to find.

The site can enable discovery in as unobtrusive a manner as is possible. Since it has multiple audiences there is a lot of information to disseminate.

The site can inspire the young Indian population to take to science, engineering, humanities and management.

The site can set out what is required to have a world class education institution as IITK is a role model for many aspiring institutes.

 

Content related known issues

We have some but not all information for the following key information heads:

Faculty profile page related information.

Design & Scientific Officers related information ( they can send their information to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. , please include the information that the mail is meant to create a Design & Scientific Officer page)

Facility page related information. There is an online form at

Courses related information

Post Docs ( they can send their information to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. , please include the information that is is meant to create a Post Doc page)

There are many other pages where you will find either the words Content pending or place holder text starting with "Lorem ipsem.." if you would like to change that please send the content you wish to have on the page. Please include the url of the page in the message.

Images do not always match the context. We are working to set this right.

The odd extra card is out there. It is in anticipation of more information to showcase.

The slider on the research highlights page should detail specific research. This will be done.

Usability related issues

Some will want to see the images used on the cards in large size. We have to enable that.

For some sidebar links the background has yet to be changed

The A to Z pages are still to be built for the main and the subsites

Some formatting issues need to be cleaned up

The links on the side bar for most pages need to be populated. There is no fixed side menu to allow custom links on each page. We welcome suggestions for such links.

Voice based search improves accessibility. This will need adding new functionality to the site which has not yet been done.

For those who wish to write content for pages on either the institute website, a department website or an office website here are some basic guidelines.

Since the amount of content required will vary a lot, there is no guideline for number of words on a page. But please aim for content of 75 to 200 words for a page, unless you need to exceed the limit, to cover the topic adequately, in which case please use as many words as required. 

1. As far as possible please use simple English words.

2. As far as possible please be concise.

3. Once you are concise about each point you wish to make, be generous and make as many points as you feel are relevant.

4. Please use short sentences. Sentences of more than 20 words should be avoided as far as possible.

5. If there is a conclusion in the piece, please consider placing the conclusion first and follow it up with the explanation.

6. If it is a long piece, please say the key points at the start as far as possible. Please also consider having a small summary at the start.

7. If you can use either a bullet list or a paragraph, please choose to go with a bullet list. Please avoid long lists though. If the list is longer than 10 items, please consider breaking it up into more than one list.

8. The British English spellings are to be used on the website. ( Right now there is a mix of British with a few American English spellings thrown in, the Institute can decide how strictly the spelling norm should be enforced )

9. Please make paragraphs of 20 to 150 words as far as possible. 70 words is a good average paragraph length.

10. One paragraph for one idea will help bring clarity to the content.

11. Please make the key points for the paragraph at the start of the paragraph as far as possible.

12. Please provide descriptive sub headings for each paragraph of 20 to 150 words or thereabouts.

13. Please plan for one or more images for each paragraph of 20 to 150 words or thereabouts. Please provide a brief description of a suitable image for the context. A resource will be provided to click and process images.

14. Please plan for videos to support your content. They can make a big difference to the depth of the content. It is easy to make videos now since most cameras can take videos of acceptable quality for the internet. You can also use the services of the Media Centre to help make videos.

15. Please pass the written content through a spell check.

16. Please proof read it for errors that spell check will not catch. Like misspelling can as van. If you do not have the time to proof read please indicate that the content requires proof reading.

17. Please provide expanded forms of acronyms used if the acronym is not widely used outside of academia.

18. What is written about is the writer's choice so there are no editorial guidelines here, but please remember on the internet a conversational tone works better than a very formal tone.

19. You can also use bold letters within a paragraph for emphasis.

20. Please do not put out personally identifiable information such as mobile phone nos., social media page details in the public domain unless required for a specific purpose.