UBC-CS - Department of Computer Science

Some ideas I had.

The UBC logo seems a bit small and is dwarfed by the large blue box to it's right. In fact the entire header comes across as rather weak. Brand first ! , it's a university, think "strong", "prestigious" and "capable" not "thin" and "boring".

It is difficult to give advice on what your asking for with "lor ipsem" text, design with real content, not dummy text. This is a cardinal rule I see being broken all the time, down with dummy text!

The main photo is engaging, but the dummy photo's are really not. No ones wants to see a boring grey building or some bad hallway photo. Again.. use real photos and not dummy ones and remember photos are the first thing people look at, so make them great, even if it's a blog post. This ain't your family photo album.

You need a more solid call to action, you want to "engage" users then make a call to action that engages them. A simple but effective "learn more" can work wonders if done right for new prospects. Since you have a specific goal in mind don't confuse users with to many options and leave them hanging, guide them through what you want them to know.

There is a lack of social media options to get involved, this is a community.

The footer is nice, but grouse mountain is way bigger then that, and where the hell is the ocean. :)

The Design is looking nice but the background is not looking good especially from the bottom part ( mountains ), else looking nice :)

Ithink you should try work on the the 2. & 3. footer element. Your top banner definity also has room for improvement. Like your grid is making nice invisible boxes. Good job.

The text on this site seems to be all over the place. I am not quite sure where to look first.

How about extending the featured image box to cover the additional info in the right side.

Here's a pick of what I am talking about:

http://flic.kr/p/8Ds5cd