Case Study: Purdue University — State Utility Forecasting Group
Client: State Utility Forecasting Group, Purdue University Discovery Park
Disciplines: Front-end web development, UI/UX, institutional design
The Challenge
For over 40 years, the State Utility Forecasting Group (SUFG) has supported Indiana with forecasts of electricity use, pricing, and resource needs, while also analyzing key energy issues — including the deployment of renewable resources and the impact of new large loads and data centers on Indiana’s electricity grid.
A research group of that stature and longevity needed a web presence that could credibly house decades of publications, forecasts, and presentations while conforming to Purdue’s institutional brand standards. The challenge is not simply building a website — it is building one that serves researchers, policymakers, students, and journalists simultaneously, without becoming cluttered or bureaucratic.
The Approach
Building within the Purdue web ecosystem means working within an established design system — the Purdue-branded WordPress theme — while still making meaningful decisions about information architecture, content hierarchy, and user flow. Nineteen years working inside Purdue’s communications infrastructure produced exactly the kind of institutional fluency this project required.
The navigation structure was designed to serve multiple user types. Researchers and policymakers look for specific publications; students seek thesis resources; journalists and regulators need quick access to the latest forecasts. The site organizes resources into presentations, publications, dissertations and theses, and helpful links — with a latest-updates section keeping the content current and a clean directory for team contacts.
The Outcome
The site bridges the worlds of academic rigor and public-facing communication. Publications are prominently surfaced with strong imagery and clear titles, making technical content visually approachable. The responsive layout performs across devices — critical for a resource that Indiana utility regulators and MISO planners may access in a variety of contexts.
Why It Stands Out
Institutional web work is deceptively demanding. Every decision has to clear more stakeholders, honor more constraints, and serve more diverse audiences than a commercial site. That the SUFG site reads as polished and organized — rather than bureaucratic and cluttered — is the direct result of a designer who understands how to find creative room within a rigid system.
Eric Smoldt Graphic Art — ericsmoldt.com
