Western Illinois University – Episode #130
Site Scores:
| Site | Visual | Information | Code | Overall |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Western Illinois University | 43 | 60 | 90 | (193/300) 64% D |
Today’s Tip:
It is better to combine CSS files that to chain @import files since the browser has to load the initial then parse then load a second and start the process all over again. Try to keep the HTTP requests down to a minimum and include the actual style definitions in a single file for fast download and caching.
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Tags: episode
December 11th, 2009 at 1:26 pm
Interesting little setup you’ve got going here! I hope universities are paying attention.
As an employee of Western, I also have reasons to go to our site. I can get to my email, fill out my electronic timecard, find forms and policy manuals, etc., tasks all related to my job. I DON’T want to click on a thousand links or dropdowns to get there – I want it all with one click, just like everyone else. I believe that is the reason there is so much information crammed on our homepage.
There are at least five groups of people I can think of who want to go to a university’s homepage – prospective students, current students, faculty/staff, alumni and those “just lookin’ around.” How can the homepage serve all of those users with the fewest clicks, the clearest content and the perfect look? Raising one group above another seems hardly fair. Should the homepage simply have five big buttons with those descriptions on them so the user can choose a path more specific to his/her needs?
I would think that all university homepages have this problem. How do you suggest we improve our homepage to serve all of those users as equally as possible?
Thanks for your time.
January 2nd, 2010 at 7:03 pm
Sue, as I no longer work in higher education (the corporate world is … um … well, it’s another world), I guess I can reply without fear of retribution.
To be brutally honest, you are part of the problem. There is no reason for any of the links you mentioned to be on the home page, and you (and all other faculty / staff) are not a user group. All internal resources such as timecards, policy manuals, and email belong on an intranet site. The intranet should be the productivity center for internal users (including current students, faculty, and staff). The website should serve prospective students and alumni, with current students as a secondary audience.