Site Reviews

St. Cloud State University Program Board

St. Cloud State has a much larger programming board then we do at Bemidji State so their website is much more extensive then ours will be. I had some problems finding their website through navigating the site, but found it through the search bar. Once at the site it was very easy to navigate because it has a very simple layout with sidebar navigation. The main purpose of their website seems to be inform student of events that are happening. The home page is focused on a concert that they will be hosting and then two links to events they are hosting on campus. Their website is going to be a good referance for us to use because it is very practical and student orientated. St. Clouds programing board website is useful because it has some of the same goals as ours, but just on a larger level.

• The committe page is very informational and could be useful for us as a reference
• I like how they also really emphasize the events that will be happening around campus
• Their site is simple which makes it easy to navigate through, as should ours.

St. Scholastica Campus Activity Board (CAB)

It was very interesting to look at St. Scholastica's (CAB-Campus Activity Board) website because it has a very unique design. The main focus of the "CAB" website is an actual bright yellow taxi cab. Because St. Scholastica is a smaller private college the website seems to have a more personable fee. The website is very fun, but it almost seems unprofessional. The main page features is a huge image of an clip art cab, with several links to events that they are planning. The main goal for this website seems to inform students of the different events that are happening on campus. They use very simple navigation and layout to advertise for the different catagories of events (movies, coffeehouse artists, dances....). The site does not explain anything about the organization, which seems odd. It only lists the few members, how to contact them, and a copy of the minutes for the last meeting. Overall this is a good site for us to look at for creativity, but it lacks professionalism. This site is very fun, but almost too much fun.

• This website is very unique, but almost seems amateur
• Its main goal is also to inform students of future events
• It has very simple navigation throughout the site.

BSU Student Senate

The Senate website is very well put-together, aside from a few needed updates. At the top are links to general useful items (BSU home, MSUSA, University Directory, etc.). The left-hand navigation had Senate-specific information (senators, committees, minutes, resolutions, constitution, bylaws, FAQs, links, and contact info). Underneath the left-hand navigation is a calendar that shows anything happening; you can't click on the events or days, which HUPB probably would need to do, but when you run the mouse over a highlighted day it shows the event and time. At the right are four boxes with arrows (links), saying "Join us," "Gripe? Complain here!", "Blog," and "Scrapbook." Along with being set up nicely, it also uses the right nomenclature (i.e. "Got a gripe?" instead of something more boring). There are useful links, downloadable forms (applications, budget request info, etc.), and a green background that makes it similar to the BSU website. Each category is also set up well; for the Constitution, it doesn't just have it, it has links to each article. There's a page for each committee, and at the bottom of each page, it says, "all people are accepted into all committees, but which matches my major?" Each committee also lists a purpose, meeting times, members, and any useful links. The minutes are downloadable in Microsoft Word, and the Bills and Resolutions pages also have archives from past years. There's also a link for the webmaster.

These are all things that HUPB could borrow, because they make it interesting and easy to navigate. When I looked for something, it was clearly labeled. However, aside from our own design scheme and nomenclature, we'd also need to add categories that would give people information on past events. We'd also have to have a lot more pictures--Senate didn't have any--because that's what gets people interested in events. We'd probably still keep certain aspects of the home page the same--for example, their meeting times were listed right in the middle of the home page so that people could see it--but there was a boring little intro diddy: "Here you will find information, resources, and updates about Student Senate that might be helpful to current and prospective students of BSU." We definitely will not have that. We'd have to add pictures of members (not just a list of names), and instead of having an email link (which always opens up the webmail email thing), we should have the forms that they can fill out right on the website, which then would be sent to the HUPB email (like the WRC draft submission form). ~Traci Nigon

BSU Hobson Union

It will be important to us to differentiate HUPB from the Union, as our names are so similar that students automatically assume that we are the same. We are not. I do like all of their pictures, especially the fact that there's at least one on every page, and I like the post-it note in the corner. However, we'd have to move these around and change the design to make them different.

Another way to differentiate us from the Union would be to emphasize the words "programming board," perhaps by making it larger underneath the "hobson union" part or by making it look fancy somehow. We could also have pictures of our (tiny) office within H2O, which maybe will help differentiate us from the Union and Info Desk. Also, the nomenclature will be different, as we don't have the touche gallery, an info desk, or info on other student organizations (although we do have events and activities, which we'll have to focus on). The other problem in differentiating us is the fact that they have lists of events on many pages, as well as pictures of past events. We would have to make sure that we either have a great home page or a different list somehow. We'd also follow the union's footsteps by having pictures of places that people would recognize on campus so that they'd know where to find us, although our pictures would be more of our office and meeting space than the union itself.

A different use of color may also be helpful. The Union uses primarily blue, red, and yellow; we could use green, like BSU and Senate, and maybe pink or something different like that. Maybe HUPB itself can start a new PR scheme using the same colors as the website. ~Traci Nigon

UMD Kirby Student Center

The first thing I noticed/liked about how UMD set up their programming board website was their featured event right on the main page. They had a picture of the band the University is bringing in as well as some background information on them. Because UMD is a bigger school, they can obviously bring in big events like this one, yet, it might be a good idea for our site to keep the idea of having a featured event (whatever it may be) on the home page. I think by doing this it also shows that we update frequently.

The site was easy to navigate around. There was a lot of helpful information. Late Night Kirby was one of the action links that caught my eye. When clicked on, it lists events students can attend during the evening hours that the Kirby Center works with. In the list, price, time and place was included, making it easy for students to see what they had to pick from if they chose to attend one of the events.

The site wasn't too extensive and it was easy to move around in. They had a lot of information on events and other campus-related issues. I found it a basic "how to" and "where to go" site, that overall, gave me some general layout ideas for how we may want to construct our HUPB site.

-Emily Halla

Cornell University Program Board

http://www.rso.cornell.edu/cupb/index.html

The first thing I liked about this programming board was that its name was CUPB, kind of like our HUPB, clever.

Anyway, I see a lot of similiar ideas of our group that match what this site has already accomplished. However, their site is pretty basic and plain, I see ours as more colorful and standing out a little more (depending on how good we get with Dreamweaver.)

Like Duluth, CUPB also has their main attraction (Stephen Colbert) featured on the main page. Just by looking at that, it makes me want to investigate the site more and see what other kinds of activities the oraganization offers. By highlighting this main event, along with another on their main page, it appears to me that the main goal of this site is to let the public know what is currently happening within the campus.

Another aspect I liked was the past shows they list. This board has brought some pretty big names, such as Jon Stewart in. I'm jealous.

To wrap it up, the site's navigation is incredibly straight forward and not at all complex. The site also lists the Executive Board, mission, meeting information and contact information. It was a good site, it just needed some spicing up, it was very boring to look at. All in all, it was interesting to look at something outside of Minnesota.

-Emily Halla

UCLA Happings and Texas A&M MSC.

• I visited UCLA's website and found that they have all their activities under events and concerts and it was found under happings. It was very confusing and hard to navigate through because of all the links that were spread out over the whole page. Nothing was clearly defined on what any activity was. It was very colorful and was divided into sections such as sports, lectures, concerts, ect. I also looked at Texas A&M. Their programing board is found under student life under student memorial center, then click under programing. It is basically just a calender with dates and the names of the programs and they are links that will tell you more about the event. It was divided into four different catagories, prorams, services, facilities, and committiees. Easy to navigate through but a little blinding with all the huge bright colors used for the back ground and headers. I also looked at NYU's but they did not have one that I could find.