Concept Design
The homepage, section by section
Every section earns its place by doing something the current homepage does not. The order matters as much as the parts: a visitor arriving with no knowledge should be able to descend the page and, by the foot of it, understand what Austrian economics is, who the Institute is, and what is available to them.
The through line is breadth. The current Mises homepage shows a lot of Mises Wire articles but not the big picture of the Institute. This one holds more content in less space, and lets each section make a single point.
Site wide
The navigation
The current site carries eight flat items across the top over an archive of many thousands of pages. Nothing indicates depth, so nothing suggests there is more to find.
This groups them into six and opens the second level in place rather than in a dropdown. The Listen and Watch panel shown here carries the Institute’s own seven categories, which today are invisible unless a visitor lands on the podcasts page and starts expanding things.
Lecture Series moved to Learn. A course taught at the Institute is not a podcast, whatever folder the audio sits in, and filing it under one costs the Institute every visitor who searches for a course.
Section one
The banner
The first impression should be refined and carry stature. A visitor who has never heard of the Institute needs to feel, within a second, that this is a serious body of work rather than a blog.
It invites a newcomer to learn why Mises’s most important work is still relevant, while at the same time showing that Austrian economics has deep historical roots. Those two things together are the whole pitch: old enough to be proven, current enough to matter.
One portrait, one headline, one action. Nothing competes for attention, which is what makes it read as confident rather than busy.
Section two
The four blocks
Four doors sorted by experience level. A visitor picks the one that matches where they are: never heard of it, know the name but not the argument, want to study it properly, or would rather be in the room.
This is the section that would have kept the retired doctor on the site. He arrived with one question and the current homepage gave him a headline instead of an answer. Here the answer is the second thing he sees.
The blocks straddle the boundary between the banner and the page below, so they read as part of the arrival rather than as a separate menu.
Section three
Latest from Mises
Mises Wire, Power and Market, and the podcasts were previously the entirety of the homepage. Here they are combined into one organized carousel with a filter.
It uses a small amount of homepage real estate and still delivers more content than the current site does. Twenty items in the space that four used to occupy, sorted newest first, with the reader able to narrow to one source in a single tap.
Combining the three feeds also removes the impression that the site is three separate publications sharing a page.
Section four
Mises University
A gold mine of academic resources and lectures that are both educational and, without ever advertising, make the case for the in person events.
The section shows visitors what is available to them. The reaction it aims for is: look what I am missing by not attending these conferences. It also demonstrates the range of subjects the Institute covers, which is far wider than most people assume. It does a great deal in a small amount of space.
A featured lecture introduces the section, then the day filter turns forty-five lectures into something browsable. Without it the same content would read as an intimidating list.
Section five
Podcasts
This section is optional. Podcast episodes already appear in Latest from Mises above, so showing them again repeats content the visitor has just passed.
It earns its place only if the shows are worth presenting as shows rather than as items in a feed. Six programs, each with its own identity, is a different claim from six episodes in a list.
Section six
Why I Side with Ludwig von Mises
A credibility section, and a concept only. This would be new content: short videos or audio pieces in which accomplished people explain why they side with Mises.
The argument it makes is not academic. A visitor who does not yet trust the economics can still recognize the people, and the section answers the question that precedes every other one: is this taken seriously by anyone I would respect?
This is the one section on the page that asks the Institute to produce something new. Everything else uses material that already exists.
Section seven
Featured lecture series
The lecture series is incredible evergreen content and it is currently buried. Advertising it on the homepage is the cheapest improvement available, because the material is already made and already excellent.
It also adds stature. Forty-six complete courses, recorded in full, is a claim very few institutions can make, and it changes how the whole site reads.
This section is the homepage argument for the navigation change. If it belongs on the front page, it does not belong four levels inside a menu called Podcasts.
Section eight
Calendar and external links
The foot of the page carries upcoming events and the platforms where the Institute publishes elsewhere.
A visitor who has read this far is the most likely of anyone to attend something or subscribe somewhere. Putting those at the bottom rather than the top respects the order in which people actually decide.
This describes a working concept, not a finished site. The copy was written to show how the content might be presented and has not been checked for accuracy or for fit with the Institute’s voice. The photographs are placeholders and a few would need rights cleared before use.
