Last week we launched a new site dedicated to campus retail, restaurants and services (opens new window). To date there was no central spot to learn about all the options available. In addition these retail locations often have specials going on for students, there was no place to post these specials before since we don't put them on the university homepage.

Design

The visuals of the site were meant to show off the breadth of things offered on campus. The goal of the homepage is to show off specials happening on campus. Students often complain about not knowing what is offered to them and this site is meant to solve that. Right up front there is a spot to feature a restaurant or service in addition to list three deals going on. The horizontal navigation allows us to categorize the places available into the types of establishments.

Information

From an information architecture standpoint each category in the navigation is filled with "companies" that fit that criteria. A few companies span multiple categories, for example, our bookstore has retail space and a coffee shop. When a visitor chooses a company they are presented with the basic information about it. A description, location, nearest parking, a map to get there, hours and payment methods. We also made it a point to show photos of the inside and outside of the locations. This give visitors an understanding of what to look for since some locations are inside existing buildings.

Special Offers

Every company has the ability to maintain their own specials which display not only on the company page but also on the homepage. We allow visitors to signup for a newsletter that goes out every month with all the recent deals. Since the site is so new this process is done by hand, as the site gets more popular we will move it to a fully automated system.

Visit the Campus Retail website at: http://shops.wayne.edu/ (opens new window)