Connecticut State University System – Episode #188
Site Scores:
| Site | Visual | Information | Code | Overall |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Connecticut State University System | 98 | 97 | 97 | (292/300) 97% A+ |
Today’s Tip:
If you have areas on your site that use ajax or load information dynamically to change the state of the page make sure you don’t break the back button. The best way to do this is to add a hash (#) to the URL. This allows the URL have a permalink for the state of the page and if the visitor leaves and comes back it will restore the state of the page. It’s something the user doesn’t have to think about. Adding dynamic content like this is great but does open a whole different box of user experience needs.
Show Notes
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September 10th, 2010 at 12:13 pm
I agree about mega-menus in general, but these are well done overall.
I think this is a special case compared to most of the sites EDU Checkup looks at since it’s for an entire system. But I’m sure in some ways that makes their communication needs even more complex. So the elegance at work here are even more impressive.
Overall I like the way they’ve mixed the mega menu with a strong left column nav area and tabs on child pages. That sounds like a disaster but they not only pull it off but make it work well.
The only area for improvement I can add to what you point out is I’d like to see the list (or at least *a* list) of degree programs for the entire system. CT is a fairly small state, right? Google Maps says the Central campus and the Southern campus are within an hour’s drive of each other. Is the geography of the campus going to be a primary means of differentiation among program options?Oh, wait. That’s what the initial tab, CSUS, does. That could be made more clear by avoiding acronyms. “All Campuses” or “System Wide” or even just “All” would be more clear than CSUS. But in the grand scheme of things that’s a very minor point.
I’ve been wanting to use something like Benjamin Keen’s SmartLists to present our degree and certificate programs for years. The implimentation here is a bit more Ajax datatable than smartlist, but it’s close enough to how I imagine it working for us that I’ll file this away as a proof of concept to pass up the chain of command.
September 10th, 2010 at 12:19 pm
Nick – this is a beautiful site for sure with lots of great content — but 97 for code?! really!? HTML Tidy is reporting 164 warnings and they are avoidable. The are using spans wrong which is causing most of the warnings.
September 10th, 2010 at 8:54 pm
I always used to tell people one great thing about the web was the ability to correct problems as you find them. That being the case, some span to div, and div to span conversions, and the site validates no problem. Thanks for all the great feedback as it’s wonderful to hear thoughts from other web professionals.
September 13th, 2010 at 7:15 am
@Andrew – that is an amazing thing about the web! You have done an amazing job on this site and you should be very pleased with the results. With those changes to the spans you definitely have earned the 97 for code! -my ribbing was more for Nick for overlooking that aspect — but he is still a rock star!
September 13th, 2010 at 9:16 am
@Derek This is totally a special case because it’s the entire system. I was thinking about it more after I posted it how the scoring is a little off because of the context of what it is.
@Andy The scoring of the code for this site has kept me up at night. At the time I thought it was right but the more I think about it the more I realize I have been harder on others for less. I think because I could tell they took care in hand coding most of their code and it was very clean from a 10,000 foot view it was impressive. The smaller details can be ironed out. If I were to re-evaluate the code It would get a slightly lower score but it is what it is.
@Andrew Great work! I know the pressure and pain with getting something like this integrated with many systems, approved and out the door. Even with perfect work tomorrow their will always be something that could be improved.
April 4th, 2011 at 6:42 am
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