The XKCD comic is pretty accurate, but that is because most people who regularly venture onto a university website have these specific reasons. I think the designers of these websites understand that and think that these consistent users will know how to navigate the page and ignore the “junk” that litters the homepage. For example, I know to either use the search toolbar (now that WSU has improved it) or one of the links which quickly directs me to the area I am wanting.
I looked at Western Washington University’s website and was rather surprised. For one, our WSU website is much more appealing to the eye and to someone who is searching for an important looking school. However, Western’s site is very straight forward. It appears to be kind of cluttered with links, but each link actually has significance relevance to the main users of the site. Right away a person can find where to pay bills, register for classes, academics, job postings and school news. With all of this on the home page the user is not left trying to find ways around a littered website. Everything is right at their finger tips and in plain sight. WSU’s website does a good job of concealing a lot of this “clutter” to make it look appealing and professional, but just by first glace I would assume that Western’s website would be easier to navigate.
I completely agree with why universities use the same template for a website: because normal users of the website know how to operate it. That is cool how their site has links for students specifically, but I like how we have a separate student account for all of those things like signing up for classes and paying bills (maybe I'm being bias hah)
ReplyDeleteI looked at the Western Washington University website as well and found the exact same thing! While WSU's homepage is much more pleasing to the eye, Western's homepage actually has the useful links in a slightly-unorganized pattern, but absolutely still much more accessible than Washington State University's. Did you also notice the slightly irrelevant photo of a tree as the main visual focal point of the site? I found that to be slightly odd, as the page is clearly meant for a university and not a florist convention. Maybe there is something behind that photo that I'm unaware of because I've never attended the school!
ReplyDeleteNice job comparing WWU and WSU. Your comment on navigation is an interesting one (what we expect from different designs).
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