How to proceed
Review user goals and develop strats to meet them.
Redraft current top pages for attitude and to meet goals of persona
None of the current top level program info pages address a single goal; they mix promo with contact info with decontextualized lists of courses - with no explanation.
- program information pages: recast and place differently: rename them, reorg, explain, link
- move current program info to the side / tangential
- set things up for users to explore if they wish to (p. 99 - 100)
- set pages up to address a single goal
Recast nav bar
Perhaps our top level categories are wrong. We drew them from programs rather than a consideration of users.
NavBarAlternatives
- review the personas to see if we have alternatives
- review other sites for alternatives
- review other classes of sites for alternatives
New Pages
write to meet goals of persona (designate by page content rather than the audience)
advice pages
- first-year students
- applying for grad study
- timely graduation
- what do do after you graduate
- how to ... a series of procedures
- how to contest a grade
- how to change advisers
- ...
- FAQs
- ...
- prof profiles
- try a few before we approach faculty
- pages that link to other sites
- embedded links
- index pages
Restructure site / sidebar (Requires card sort)
- graduate plans
- first year advice
New Stuff
- images? what use?
- blog
- wiki
- discussion forum / Q&A
- use of pdfs
See PersonaAndScenarios | PurposeStatement
Purpose: To supplement and humanize other information on the BSU web by providing orientation, advice, and contact. (2/22/07)
Review existing Personas
- Example: Olga Mackinack - see bottom of handout for Goals
Advice from the site reviewers:
EricKuha
1. MIT
- May have sacrificed some content for simplicity
- Design "things"
- Main page header and template changes as you surf away from it
- On some pages - template completely disappears
- Each class has it's own website
- Prose - all very tight
- No page title
- Not a lot of context clues in the text
- Category page - courses grouped by categories
- Some things underlined, but NOT a link
*Very simple and to the point - almost too simple?
2. Moorhead
- Huge header
- Blue links - cliche?
- VERY wordy
- Many pages start with a Welcome sentence
- Huge blocks of text
- First-Year English page
- Top of page has a link for instructors (password protected)
- Downloads available only in MS Word (no .pdf)
*All over the place - little structure or organization
3. Winona
- LOTS of bulleted lists
- Many pages with very limited text
- A few with lengthy chunks of text like the Graduate pages
- Arranged for finding what you're looking for quickly
- Course descriptions shortened
- Not every page has headings and subheadings
*Noteworthy Section to the right of every page: Faculty written books, Clubs, etc.
*Resource page for Students
- On Campus (jobs, work study, study abroad), Writing & Rhetoric (OWL at Perdue), Language & Literature
- Resource page for Faculty
- Kuha's favourite
JessicaTheroux
1. U of M
- Projects & Publications - Links to literary magazines, research groups
- Faculty Directory
- Each faculty member is listed with their name and personal info in the left column
- Linked email
- Each profs name is a click-able link to an expanded profile of their work and experience
- Some pages with just list of links, some pages very wordy
- "We encourage you to get to know the English Dept website so you are comfortable navigating it..."
2.
U of M Duluth
- Lots of repitition of links
- Navigation bar on the right
- Sticks out more than the text
- Looks like a pop-up
- Ticker at the top - bothersome
- What we Read:
- Book description followed by brief line stating: recommended by faculty name
- Headings - Scholarship & Pleasure Reading
- In handout format
- Faculty page
- Courses they teach
- Some have their own websites
- Recent publications listed
- Some names are links to email and some are links to websites with a bio (not consistent)
3.
St. Cloud State University
- Broke mission statement up into numbers - still long but states what English Dept. has to offer
- Academic Programs
- Brief
- Glossing the links to catalogs, advising info, course descriptions, etc.
- English 191:
- Course descriptions
- Course outline
- Course objectives
- Proabably written for adjunct profs
- Faculty page
- Separated by Undergrad and Graduate
- Year joined University
- Degree they have
- E-mail addy
- Some individual website links
- Exemption Program for Engish 191 - FAQ page - "Answers to Common Questions"
- Top links are University
- Left links are Dept links
- Scholarships - brief descriptions
- Internships - we have them, email us to talk to us for more info
Dept Page Recasts: First Pass