Biola University – Biola Undergrad – Episode #211
Site Scores:
| Site | Visual | Information | Code | Overall |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Biola University – Biola Undergrad | 98 | 92 | 92 | (282/300) 94% A |
Today’s Tip:
Re-use information in multiple areas. Although you have an “Upcoming Events” area your visitors may overlook it and pay attention to another area on the site. Think text promotion, visual promotion and sidebar promotion on child pages. Imagine users have A.D.D., the same representation for information doesn’t work for every user.
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Tags: episode
January 3rd, 2011 at 1:24 pm
Great review Nick – the site is definitely pushing the boundaries and rethinking how things can be done. I was a little surprised by the weight of the bcakground images that are used -300-400kb — some higher. I am wondering if we (the general web surfer) are for images that size? Looks amazing and very creative, but slow loading even on my fast connection – I’d hate to see it on dial-up…
January 4th, 2011 at 8:11 am
I didn’t even look at the page weight, thanks for bringing it up! The page is really heavy, 3 megs total! In my mind that is totally unacceptable. By some remote chance they are doing connection detection and loading a high quality version for fast connections I would be surprised. I would really love to talk to the developer/design team to see how the page load time has impacted their Google ranking. Or at least how Google sees the site in their webmaster tools.
January 4th, 2011 at 11:31 am
Even with 2.5 megs worth of images and 50ish HTTP requests the site loads really quickly for me. Of course, I’m surfing at work. I’d like to try it again from home.
WebPagetest gives them a decent grade, but the median load time for initial visits is 23 seconds.
http://www.webpagetest.org/result/110104_DY_7GQ3/
The problem with a recruiting site like this is sending people to the individual program pages/sites to close the deal can be a bit of a let down. Of course, if you’ve got analytics data or something to show behavior patterns and can explain those patterns to stakeholders then that can help foster content ownership. It’s a good problem to have.
When I first started trolling eduStyle Biola had several pages among the all time most popular. They obviously have a web team with great talent and passion and have managed to hold on to that for several years running.
January 4th, 2011 at 4:00 pm
@Derek Thanks for the webpagetest for the sure. 23 seconds is totally unacceptable for a first load time, but that is just me.
I totally agree about the jumps to the school/college site for degree program details. I am seeing that trend more and more now and I think it is a half push to centralize the university website when each school/college has traditionally been independent. They just don’t want to give up their control to help the greater good of the institution.
April 4th, 2011 at 6:32 am
[...] Biola University – Biola Undergrad – EDU Checkup Episode #211 [...]