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Descartes
Super Moderator
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Posted: Thu Jun 14th, 2007 01:04 pm |
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Because I have visited so many of them, I am starting to become an informed critic of College Websites and, in particular, homepages.
I suspect most of us are, so I'd like to start a thread where we can post our favorites and our hateds and share critiques on both aesthetics and functionality of Websites and homepages in particular. I'll start with a few of mine...
My favorite homepage thus far:
http://www.oxy.edu/
There color scheme here is well-balanced, attractive, distinctive, and inviting. The layout is interesting and simple - its easy to find things and not overloaded with text. And the balance of "real information" vs. "marketing" is right, neither overwhelms the other. I like just looking at this page and appreciating the graphic intution of the designer. I wish there was a search box immediately available here, but the link is relatively easy to find.
And now an ugly one:
http://www.american.edu/index1.html
This is the American University, do we really need the red-white-blue to remind us of this? The frame is tiny and wastes much of the screen real estate to white space that could be used instead to enlarge the itsy-bitsy text I don't want to read. And there's no search box, not even a search link ... oh yeah, way down there in the lower left corner.
This can be fun. Give it a try!
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mackinaw
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Posted: Thu Jun 14th, 2007 03:09 pm |
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Those are good illustrations of the good and the bad.
We also had another thread that focused on the quality of admissions office websites in particular:
http://admissionsadvice.mywowbb.com/forum22/367.html
As far as overall aethetics and usefulness are concerned, I've long thought the University of Chicago did a nice job on their homepage both with the layout and their active use of a "news hole" to rotate stories about faculty and students: http://www.uchicago.edu/
A lot of college and university websites are very difficult to navigate. One of my pet peeves is the site that in effect requires you to know the administrative structure of the university in order to navigate to the webpages of departments (via divisions or colleges or whatever). Some colleges and universities have both the "formal" website of the units and the "real one" (maintained by the unit itself), and this can be confusing.
Last edited on Thu Jun 14th, 2007 04:36 pm by mackinaw
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DesperateDad
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Posted: Thu Jun 14th, 2007 03:35 pm |
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| I second UofChicago for it's website. My favorite is their response to the 'local time' for submission question: UofC allows students to use the local time of some atoll in the Pacific near the International Date Line as their final time stamp. Classic.
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Lderochi
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Posted: Thu Jun 14th, 2007 08:41 pm |
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I've always hated Delaware's. Just. . . . ugly. And also difficult to navigate.
http://www.udel.edu
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binx
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Posted: Sat Jun 16th, 2007 01:20 pm |
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After we moved home from Germany, we suddenly discovered we couldn't access Allegheny's website. After trying a bunch of different things, including contacting their tech department, we had a few of our friends with bellsouth Internet try. None of them can access it either.
I don't know whether it is bellsouth or Allegheny who is putting up the wall. Don't know if this is just in our area, or all over. We have complained to both. I would think Allegheny would care, since it might mean a significant portion of the south can't access their website!
We can access it using "the cloak." But we cannot do anything that requires a password or registration. Although my D turned down Allegheny for more significant reasons, we did realize that this block would mean our D could not ever access her school email, grades, and other things from home!
Not the kind of thing you're looking for, I know, but to me the worst website is one that it inaccessible!
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mackinaw
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Posted: Sat Jun 16th, 2007 02:06 pm |
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I don't know about its accessibility, but the homepage's ugliness is readily apparent. Ironic considering that they are featuring the construction of a new communication arts building.
http://allegheny.edu/
Last edited on Sat Jun 16th, 2007 02:09 pm by mackinaw
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binx
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Posted: Sat Jun 16th, 2007 02:27 pm |
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Here's a few, IMHO.... 
Denison's is simple and easy to use: http://www.denison.edu/
I like Berry's changing photos: http://www.berry.edu/
Rhodes looks collegiate: http://www.rhodes.edu/
William and Mary is messy: http://www.wm.edu/
Bard's is boring: http://www.bard.edu/about/
Davidson's is ADD: http://www3.davidson.edu/cms/
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mackinaw
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Posted: Sat Jun 16th, 2007 03:15 pm |
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All of those assessments are spot on.
I took a look at the websites of some art institutes and they fare only a little better on average.
California Institute of the Arts (CalArts):
http://calarts.edu/ (not very attractive but easy to negotiate)
Savannah College of Art and Design:
http://www.scad.edu (rotating pics are very nice, but navigation points are a little confusing)
Rhode Island School of Design:
http://www.risd.edu (fun to chase the info tab you want across the screen, and then you get a very boring page on admissions or whatever)
Boring boring:
Maryland Institute College of Art: http://www.mica.edu (also not laid out well with tabs for getting to key information quickly)
Kansas City Art Institute: http://www.kcai.edu (hard to read, the pic is hokie)
Last edited on Wed Jun 20th, 2007 05:50 pm by mackinaw
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CarolynLawrence
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Posted: Sat Jun 16th, 2007 06:57 pm |
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Skidmore's website has always driven me crazy in its attempt to be "creative", but last night I noticed they've redone it, and it is now MUCH easier to navigate.
Beloit's website could use some work, in my opinion. They're going for the "do your own thing" approach, but it's very annoying when you don't want to do your own thing, but just want to find some tidbit of information that you know is buried deep in the bowels somewhere.
I also really like Southwestern University's website -- they are very straightforward and clear about who gets in, and why. I wish more schools were so straightforward.
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Descartes
Super Moderator
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Posted: Mon Jun 18th, 2007 02:45 am |
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Does a homepage accurately reflect the character of the college? Then these people should reconsider the design of theirs:
http://www.harvard.edu/
which says inelegant, dull, and way behind the times.
OK, maybe they don't really need a cool homepage, or even really care if they have one, but I'll bet Harvard doesn't have School or Department of Graphic Design.
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Fireflyscout
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Posted: Mon Jun 18th, 2007 03:57 am |
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I like Carleton's - http://www.carleton.edu - pretty easy to navigate, but it's a bit on the bland side..
Dislike RPI's - http://www.rpi.edu - too busy.
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mmaah
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Posted: Wed Jun 20th, 2007 02:02 pm |
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I am fond of Whitman's site http://www.whitman.edu/content/
It somehow manages to be attractive, informative and easy to navigate--and gives me a sense of what's happening on campus without bugging my kid with pesky parental questions. I'm bored with the current photos on the front page though and think it could use a new set of views...Campus tour is nice for prospective students since it is not that simple to actually get to Walla Walla..
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WestrnMom
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Posted: Wed Jun 20th, 2007 06:48 pm |
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My favorite was the Whitworth site http://www.whitworth.edu/ They have a beautiful tour of the campus and dorms. I wanted to apply and become a freshman again!
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mathmom
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Posted: Thu Jun 21st, 2007 07:39 pm |
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Harvard does have a dull site! A real shortage of pictures for one thing.
I like Carnegie Mellon's site http://www.cmu.edu/index.shtml, partly because it seems to have new and interesting things on the home page regularly. If you follow too many links you can get lost though. The links on the main page on the left keep the tabs at the top, but the ones on the right lead to pages without obvious links home. There are different subsites for each school and they are quite different. (As were their presentations on admitted students weekend.)
Last edited on Thu Jun 21st, 2007 07:45 pm by mathmom
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Fireflyscout
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Posted: Thu Aug 9th, 2007 01:30 am |
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Came across this website:
http://www.gcfonline.com/Marketing_Communications_for_Education/papers.php
Look for the report on the 100 college websites review
Very interesting information, and I think it covers all the points we made in this thread!
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Descartes
Super Moderator
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Posted: Thu Aug 9th, 2007 04:07 am |
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Excellent find! Of course I immediately ran out and looked at their top rated sites.
Some do's and don'ts they list:
OMG, don’t do this anymore:
• Need to install software
• Technology that doesn’t work
• Avoid the cliché words: unique, leadership, excellence
• Information clutter on pages
• Make us search for the search feature
• Multiple clicking to get answers
• Too many links
• Inability to return to the homepage
OMG, do this some more:
• Answer all their questions, not yours
• Tours don’t have to be high tech but they have to be interesting and use great photography
• Clear consistent navigation—keep it simple
• Photo/blogs of students and faculty
• Have a sense of humor/fun
• Meaningful graphics and color
• 360º shots of the inside of buildings
• Financial information that’s easy to find
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limner
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Posted: Thu Aug 9th, 2007 12:14 pm |
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| binx, since I'm a bellsouth (now AT&T) customer, I, too, can't access the Allegheny web site. Frustrating.
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binx
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Posted: Thu Aug 9th, 2007 02:04 pm |
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Limner, what's even more frustrating is that we have repeatedly contacted them - admissions, the tech dept - and no one seems to care! They are eliminating much of the south from their applicant pool. (Since D started her college search from Germany, we weren't aware of the problem till well into the application process.)
We can access the site by going through this website:
http://www.the-cloak.com/anonymous-surfing-home.html
However, The Cloak doesn't allow you to access sites which require registration. So when Allegheny asked D to fill out a survey about why she isn't attending, she wasn't able to do so. (When she contacted Allegheny, they told her she should fill out the paper one they mailed to her. Except she never got one. We were eager to have another place to document this issue!) It occurred to us after the fact that D would have had trouble accessing her email or any other college-related info - such as scheduling or student pages - from home, had she chosen to attend Allegheny!
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Fireflyscout
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Posted: Mon Feb 4th, 2008 05:40 pm |
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I'm loving the brand-new design of the Carleton website!
http://www.carleton.edu
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limner
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Posted: Mon Feb 4th, 2008 05:45 pm |
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| fireflyscout, I love it too! And I think the quotes from the students are great--they really capture Carleton.
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