Tips Archive

New River Community College - Episode #186
Be original, change the defaults. Prospective students are going through multiple sites when searching for the college that's right for them. Make sure yours stands out in the right way. Just because your visuals are great doesn't mean the information is all there. Just because the information is there doesn't mean it will load quickly or is findable. And just because you have the cleanest code it doesn't automatically make students inspired. The web is about balance, make sure you test and re-test your site, there is no silver bullet.
Arizona State University - Episode #185
If you want something clicked on make the clickable area as large as possible. Arizona State has a few areas on their homepage that take advantage of this. The main promotion spans the full width of the browser and the entire thing is clickable. They also have a link to "Sun Devil Athletics" in the bottom left which has a much larger clickable area than you would think by scanning the page. It is this attention to detail combined with click tracking with CrazyEgg can give designers a lot of insight about how people actually use the web.
Eastern Kentucky University - Episode #184
Making clear that things are links will draw your visitors eyes to them. Try to use a dotted line or lighter underline so your pages are not overwhelmed by horizontal lines. Also, don't forget to also include an :active and :visited so visitors know where they can go and where they have been. Remember, if visitors don't know where they can go they likely will not explore every piece of text with their mouse.
Florida Atlantic University - College of Education - Episode #183
Prospective students look for confidence in the institution they choose. A consistent template and flow of information gives the appearance that the whole school is working together toward one mission. That they understand the student is at the center of their world. They can set aside their opinions to make sure the whole college looks professional. It may not seem like it makes that much impact since every department feels like they are "different" but it can make or break how organized your institution looks.
Cornell University - College of Arts and Sciences - Episode #181
Non traditional interfaces sound like a great idea on paper but in execution not preform as expected. A simple list with a search box or filter options is the accepted way to display degrees and certificates. Anything beyond that will require some learning/exploring and some potential confusion. The last thing you want to do on your institution's site is confuse prospective students. Make sure if you sway from the typical way to doing things that you test and re-test with your primary audience.
Virginia Commonwealth University - Episode #178
Photos engage visitors. Make sure anything placed on the homepage is extraordinary. You have 10 seconds to catch someone's attention, don't leave it to chance, make sure it happens. Colors and balance should all be equalized to look good in context with everything around it. Eyes focus in on smiling faces and don't go overboard on the text.
Ursuline College - Episode #176
Cut out distractions, cut our everything you can and focus on one task at a time. Ursuline College homepage does an awesome job keeping the top clean and bringing the main navigation front and center. Too many choices can paralyzes your visitors, know the goal for each and every page and play to it. If it takes 1-2 extra clicks to get information so what, user will click more if they are confident.
Sierra Nevada College - Episode #171
Users scroll, it's a fact; otherwise there wouldn't be pages deeper than 700 pixels. Make sure your important elements are above the fold, this includes navigation. Although there may be other things on the page the navigation gives the user a frame of reference about where they are and where they can go. More often visitors are coming directly from search engines which means they have about 10 seconds to decide if this is the right place for them. Navigation is a huge factor in orienting someone on your site, make your visitors see it right away.
Denver Seminary - Episode #170
If you decide to use icons on your site be sure to use them consistently throughout. Where ever possible use existing icon constructs so your users don't have to relearn what items on your site mean. For example, on the Denver Seminary site they had very consistent event icons except in one area. When I opened that area I was confused and confusing users is the last thing you want to do.
Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar - Episode #167
Pictures can make or break how engaging your website is. Make sure all photos are relevant and vibrant. Photos from this site you could tell were not just a batch of stock photos. They convinced me these were real students, staff and faculty. Authentic photos build trust.
Jackson Community College - Episode #165
The downside of using a single template for every one of your pages is that users coming in need to orient themselves within the first few seconds. If they searched for "Art Education" and they get to a page that doesn't say Art prominently in the header and the images are all generic campus shots they may get confused and leave. You pages should be engaging your students on a personal level. Look at the goals of each page and try to put yourself in the users shoes to see how the images and placement of text would resonate with them.
Asbury Theological Seminary - Episode #164
If you are going to do something different make sure it is useful. Asbury tried a different css technique to display their menu which attached it to the top of the page as the user scrolled down. They knew that the only thing important at the top of the page is the menu. Why not make it always visible so the user doesn't have to scroll all the way back up. I think they way they did it was elegant and unobtrusive.
University of Kentucky - Episode #158
Respect your users control, don't force movement on the page without them first prompting for it. Many site administrators think "adding movement" to a site will make it look updated. The hard truth is it takes longer to update moving than static content, especially if you produce text/image alternatives. That extra time could be the difference of your site getting updated four times a week compared to eight or ten with static content. In the end you may be doing your site more harm.
Southwest Minnesota State University - Episode #146
Make sure when a user clicks on something the appropriate amount of feedback gets displayed so their attention can be moved to the necessary area. In this case a menu updated content on the page but if the user was not paying attention the style of the information is exactly the same as the current content. If it highlighted the background and then faded away it would bring the users attention to the new content on the page.
Monash University - Episode #145
If you are going to try making a site variable width make sure there are some limits. Monitors are getting larger every year, what use to look good at 1024px wide might look horrible at 2048px. It is better to control your width and keep some limits to maintain readability and scalability. More real estate doesn't always mean a better experience.
Eastern University - Episode #133
Breaking the grid or having portions of things break the grid is an easy way to call attention to them. Even if it is a few pixels the user will notice, it is something that doesn't fit the formal grid of the web. Use it sparingly though otherwise nothing will stand out.
University of Denver - Episode #132
Sometimes visuals make all the difference. Great photos can increase the amount of time someone explores your site. Especially when the users drills down to a specific subject area and the photos are all related to that topic. It not only shows the user what it's like at your institution it shows you care about each and every one of your pages.
Rasmussen College - Episode #124
Its okay to break through the structured template every once an a while to get the users attention and get them involved. Using colors is a great way to get attention but breaking the grid can also bring attention to things without using crazy colors.
Duke University - Episode #123
Make sure the user is in control of the content on your page. Duke has a promotion area the automatically rotates. Although the user is not choosing the speed if they miss something they can click through at their own pace. Without this option users who miss a desired slide they are likely to leave instead of engage the page further.
Grove City College - Episode #120
Little things like the star on the selected menu items gives a little extra fun or surprise to the site that a user doesn't typically expect. These types of things used sparingly can improve the users impression of the site overall. It shows some personality from an institution site that may feel cold.
Fairfield University - Episode #119
Too much movement can distract from the users goals. It is great to the them involved but make sure the movement emphasizes the goals of the site and is not just there to make the page look active.
Colorado State University - College of Liberal Arts - Episode #118
Simple is usable. Design and layout your site to emphasize the content. Users are coming to your site to get something done, they don't want an experience. You can impact how they feel by the colors and photos butre-inventing the wheel can only confuse them more.
University of the Cumberlands - Episode #117
If you are going to put an events calendar on your homepage a user is more engaged if you give them automatically what is going on today right up front. This way they are not forced to choose a day then see the events for that date.
Thunderbird School of Global Management - Episode #107
If you are going to use a full width template make sure there is a maximum width for the main text. People are buying wider and wider monitors, the longer the lines of text the harder they are to read. Short lines, bullet points and headers make users happy.
Lewis University - Alumni & Friends - Episode #101
Make sure your menu items have enough padding around them to allow for someone who is no precision skilled at using a mouse the ability to still get to menu items with ease. Nothing can be more frustrating when you only have a few pixels of room to click on a menu item or link.
North Carolina Central University - Episode #100
If you are going to use iframe's or scrolling div's in your site make sure they are absolutely necessary and you test them with some real users before implementing them.They sound like a great idea because they act like a window to a large amount of information but they totally break the users scrolling and the information seems to be disconnected from the rest of the page.
Asbury College - Episode #97
One thing you don't want to hide on your homepage is the search box. Users who cannot find something in the first 15 seconds will often use the internal search. If they cannot find it they will probably use their first instinct to use Google. If you pages don't rank well on Google or their favorite search engine you could be at a loss.
Washtenaw Community College - Episode #94
If you are using a table with rows that range in height it is a good idea to add additional padding to the cells or style to denote where a row starts and ends. Zebra stripes are a good way to go as long as they don't distract from the data in the table. Zebra stripes are when you have an alternating row background colors in a table.
Centre College - Episode #92
If you are going to use promotions on your homepage to drive traffic to specific spots make sure they have a call to action with them. If they look too much like regular images the users eyes might just pass over them. For example "Check out A Year of Lincoln" lets people know there is something behind the button and not just an image.
Lewis University Online - Epsiode #84
If you are not using bread crumbs use some other visual representation to show your user where they are. Not every user is coming in through your homepage, make sure they know if they are in the prospective student area or in the alumni area by highlighting the top menu item related to the page they are on. Your users will thank you.
University College Falmouth - Episode #83
When ever you have movement that is controlled by the user give them hints about what is going to happen when the mouse over or click on objects. You may even find that more users click on interactive elements because they know what is going to happen or they just discovered they were there. There is no single way to use a web site so each visitor has to essencially rediscover how to use your site on their first visit, giving them clues will help keep them longer.
Washington State University - Episode #80
Less is more. The less you have on the page the more the important items will stand out. This is key to get across to your administration, the more cluttered the page gets the less anything stands out. Keep it light up front so when something needs to stand out it can hit your users in their face.
Lansing Community College - Episode #78
Only display errors if they are absolutely necessary. Errors are a large distraction and if they are not needed a prospective student can miss important information. Be smart, don't waste precious real estate.
The Union Institute and University - Episode #71
If you are going to have links on your page make sure they look like links. Also make sure all text has enough contrast against the background to allow everyone to scan your page easily without having to squint or adjust their monitors. The WCAG 2.0 recommends "The visual presentation of text and images of text has a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1"