University of Oxford – Episode #54
Site Scores:
| Site | Visual | Information | Code | Overall |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| University of Oxford | 90 | 65 | 87 | (242/300) 80% B- |
Today’s Tip:
Your university public facing web site should give your users all the tools they need to make an informed decision. Having too much information behind a firewall or login can detract prospective students because it creates a barrier to the information they need. Remember the first priority of your public facing web site is prospective students.
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Tags: episode
February 23rd, 2009 at 1:43 pm
Hello Nick,
I remembered a blue background, some gargoyles (I think) and the university of oxford name. I distinctly remember allot of spacing between the banner and the logo but that is pretty much it.
February 24th, 2009 at 5:57 pm
i remember BLUE and gargoyle faces…very linear layout…crisp.
February 24th, 2009 at 7:44 pm
Welcome to the wonderful obscure world of UK universities! Oxford don’t need to advertise their programmes because they’re so prestigious
There’s probably some differences in terminology between the US and UK and some things which have quite a high prominence on US sites like “apply now” buttons would be unimportant to UK universities because of the centralised application system.
February 25th, 2009 at 10:04 am
[...] watcher) to pause the video and comment on what you remember before I talk about what I remember. Check out the comments, its pretty interesting what sticks in everyone [...]
February 26th, 2009 at 11:33 am
hello, this was very interesting but I think that the main stumbling block in your review was a US/UK terminology one. A UK applicant is looking for “course information”, if you had looked at the menu on the left when you went into the Undergraduate course section and clicked on “Courses” you would have found what you were looking for, a full list of all the courses Oxford offers to undergrad students. Picking one at random, Classics (http://www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate_courses/courses/classics.html) you would find a description, entry requirements and selection criteria etc.
I agree that it is peculiar for the department you chose, Economics, to have little info on the courses, but Oxford has a devolved structure, each department and college website is run by their own web team. However, everything a prospective applicant needs to know is to be found on ox.ac.uk. Obviously our bias in terminology is toward UK, just as US universities have a bias to their own terms and labelling.