Site

Findings

University of Massachusetts at Lowell

www.uml.edu

Main page consists of about 7 links (geared towards a particular audience) but also has Research, and Alumni pages. But the section for Community Groups was very bad (MIT’s is superior in many ways):

The bad: When I visited Community Service tab, it went into a different website, lost navigation bar (consistency).

The tab for "Arts" just didn’t work (small button, but didn’t work anyway). Library’s website tab leads to the website, and then back button didn’t bring back, just reloaded the page. Also, Massachusetts System link on the bottom of main page leads to UMass list of colleges, and when clicking on Lowell, does not produce UML’s main page. Misleading.

The good: On continual education link it has "Request more information" on the bottom. Useful Grad School feature was a small pop up window with an announcement that the office is moving.

Univ. of British Columbia

www.ubc.ca

Main page has QuickFind (only 3 links) and has weather — like a portal. The left column is targeting specific groups (Prospective students, Faculty and Staff, Alumni, but also has Academic Programs, Library and Research.)

The bad: Two links ‘first year and prospective’ and ‘undergraduate students’ lead to the same content pages (almost) and link to Advising, for example, is identical for both. Defeats the purpose of separating the two student groups. And when should they make transition from one to another — when they feel like it? Or when they finish 1 year?

The good: First Year Program has a link called Imagine UBC (first day orientation). It doesn’t have the material to back it up, but has links from it (in a pull down menu) to go to all other imaginable places, like financial and scholarships. Content from then on deteriorated. Structure was excellent.

Boston College

www.bc.edu

This page seems very informative and gives the viewer a

quicklook at what's going on at the campus itself, and BC's relation to the community. At MIT, you have to click somewhere to get anything more than a sentence, but with this format, much more info can be given to anyone looking at the page, alum, interested applicant, or just curious websurfer.

Layout for page of "Schools & Colleges" is very visual and concise. There is a photo for each school, which helps the text have an easier read for someone deciding which school they would like to learn more about. There need to be more pictures and change of movement from one page to another. MIT's website is more well-rounded.

Seton Hall University

www.shu.edu

Main page has a directory link on the very top. It gives an amazing A-Z listing. Can click on any letter. Links appear on every page for the letter you choose. Very convenient. On Student Life page, instead of having links separated from the text, they made a conscious effort to integrate both links and content, leaving places to click throughout the text, also means that content helped describe where the link will take you.

There is no uniform site map. Something in their system prevents you from even pressing BACK button leaving you to either give up searching, or reenter the homepage to from the beginning, very frustrating!

Layout between pages is so different that it is very obvious each page is done by a completely different person/department. These differences are so extreme that the layout disrupts the content, especially with NO SITE MAP, if there is one, completely different ones for each new page!

Bard

www.bard.edu

Great feature:

For Parents

Has ‘give’ link, has ‘mentoring opportunities’ link.