Comments on: The problem with most university websites

By: Sheilamacneill

Sheilamacneill — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 11:47:43 +0000

Hi Dee

As it says in the text -the image is via xkcd – link when you click on it.

Sheila

By: Dee

Dee — Sat, 08 Dec 2012 14:13:42 +0000

Hi Sheila

Im doing my dissertation on recruiting prospective students and what info they would like. The image you have used is something Im looking for. Did you make that yourself? Would it be ok for me to publish it within my project, please let me know if you have other information. Thanks

By: Neil Allison

Neil Allison — Tue, 07 Aug 2012 08:57:12 +0000

@Russell:

Gerry McGovern wrote along similar lines back in 2010:
http://giraffeforum.com/wordpress/2010/04/18/the-decline-of-the-homepage/

It prompted me to review stats on our university website and to be honest I couldn’t find evidence to really back up what he was saying:
http://usability-ed.blogspot.co.uk/2010/05/homepage-design-and-purpose-mcgovern-vs.html

By: Russell Ormes

Russell Ormes — Mon, 06 Aug 2012 21:03:15 +0000

Nice article and I love the home page example, appeals to my sense of directness. Just a comment though that most websites are not accessed through their homepages now that search engines, social media and RSS have taken off. There are some figures mentioned on this page http://storify.com/noahchestnut/where-is-the-traffic-homepages-or-story-pages but I cannot find the source of this claim.

By: DamienJPT

DamienJPT — Mon, 02 Jul 2012 20:30:15 +0000

I think part of the problem is there is not a lot of structure in the online side of university websites. More focus and understanding needs to be on what the visitor to the website is actually looking for. Easier said than done sometimes, but very doable with the right plan and structure in place.

By: Sheilamacneill

Sheilamacneill — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 11:01:08 +0000

Thanks Neil, very useful link to you blog too.

Sheila

By: Neil Allison

Neil Allison — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 21:11:45 +0000

I’ve ripped off Gerry McGovern’s survey technique to good effect a fair few times. A very useful addition to web analytics data and proved particularly popular with our service units. Well worth investigating.

I’ve blogged anything he’s done that I’ve felt relevant to HE web management at Edinburgh for the past 3 or so years:
http://usability-ed.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Gerry%20McGovern

By: Sheila MacNeill

Sheila MacNeill — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 19:27:32 +0000

Thanks Lorna – I wonder if Professor von Prondzynski would approve?

By: Lorna

Lorna — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 14:47:36 +0000

Wow! Have you seen Strathclyde’s home page? It’s been updated since I last looked. And guess what’s slap bang in the middle of the page? Research and News. On the plus side, it doesn’t scroll

By: Sheilamacneill

Sheilamacneill — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 12:24:02 +0000

Thanks Ann and will look out for your post too.

Sheila

By: Ann Priestley

Ann Priestley — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 12:04:09 +0000

Just a quick response – are you familiar with Gerry McGovern’s Top Tasks approach? This is being used/mandated in local government and also drives the forthcoming new government site – see https://www.gov.uk/, look familiar?

There is a lot of statistics and analysis on the Government Digital Service blog about their use of the approach. It’s also being used in the US with some higher education websites. I’ll be writing more about this theme at #iwmw12 shortly.

I don’t know if Ferdinand is aware of Gerry’s Top Tasks, but aspects of his talk certainly rang the same bell.