What works:
1) The academics program page is put together very well. It is visually appealing and straight to the point with the information it provides. The picture also makes the university look beautiful. The way a university looks is somewhat important when deciding what college to attend. No one really wants to go to a rundown school.
2) The flash box on the home page tends to use a good choice of slides. It is also very appealing and draws the eye in.
3) I am glad we use our school colors throughout the website. It shows a since of pride, which is always a quality many students look for when deciding on a college.
4) I believe that the first tier landing pages such as, Prospective Students and Current Students are very strong. They are visually appealing, use great pictures (action shots) and the information being portrayed is easily understood.
5) The USI Fast Fact feature I found on some of the first tier landing pages is a very strong element. I wish there was one on the homepage.
6) I like the easy access from the home page to the Rice Library site.
What doesn't work:
1) The myUSI link has been a major complaint of mine since the e-mail, blackboard, etc. has been redone. I do not see the need of having to go through two different pages after the home page. I would like to be able to click once and have my e-mail, blackboard and etc. up.
2 ) Although the flash box on the home page usually uses a good choice of slides I feel sometimes (like now) the slides are lacking luster. It is the first thing that catches your eye when you arrive at the home page, therefore all of the slides need to be strong and represent USI as a whole. Actions shots are great and they bring life to the site and create an image of the life at our school. I feel all of the images on the site are stronger when they are action shots.
3) I feel it is very important to have a map of the campus and pictures of each and every building. I did find links to maps at the bottom of the home page and under Plan a Visit but I feel it is important to give it more emphasis. It is important to many prospective students to know what USI campus looks like and how to get around. I remember when I was a freshman and I was nervous about finding my way on campus I went looking for a campus map, but it took me forever to actually find it and once I did the map was not very helpful. I am glad to see it is now moved to the home page, but I still feel it could be positioned better with more emphasis. Moving it more toward the top on the home page would be a good first step.
I do feel we need more school spirit on the home page. Using Archie would definitely be a start.
I believe another thing prospective students are very interested in seeing is a list of clubs. Clubs help get people involved and bring life to campus life. Therefore, I believe it should be featured on the home page. If you used the USI Fast Facts on the home page then that could be part of the information.
All of the expectations I have mentioned were some that I and many of my peers had when I was looking at colleges, so therefore I do agree with the expectations.
I believe it is very important that our site looks more academic. Though commercial entertainment is appealing, we need to keep focused on what each and every one of the students have in common and that is the academics.
While browsing the Internet looking at other school’s sites I found that our site is stronger than some big name schools. I felt like our home page is stronger than IU’s and UK’s. This is a great complement considering they are some of our biggest competition when students around this area are looking for a college.
University of Cincinnati (www.uc.edu) has very strong main links. I like how the main links are right on the side/on top of the main picture slide show. When arriving at usi.edu your eyes are first drawn to the flash player on the website, so why not move our main links such as myUSI, Rice Library and etc. up right on top of/to the side of the flash slides like they have done on the University of Cincinnati’s page. I think it would be a smart move.
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