One day, after checking out RU's home page, I started to analyze the page, comparing it to other schools' home pages. I soon realized that ot
hers schools were not perfect either. Below, you'll read reviews of the front pages for every school in Virginia with an online presence. Some have more of an impact than others, as you will soon read.
The criteria I used to judge these sites are as follows:
Bridgewater is a very attractive school in reality, and it is good to see that they have reflected that on their home page. I am not sure about the significance of the red background bar, though. It's a nice color, but what does it have to do with Bridg
ewater? Also, I would recommend to the webmaster that he/she try adding a border around the image. Otherwise, the Bridgewater page is informative, and laid out well.
This is one Virginia school I have not heard of. CNU has a very functional front page, though. Mouse-overs are a nice touch, and there is a color scheme. Well done. Check out the African-American fellow on the left side. Almost looks like he's from a
nother picture...hmmm...
GMU's site has always been one of my favorite college sites. They always seem to have a grasp of balance, aesthetic, and up-to-date information. This front page is no different. I have not found a page more simple to figure out where to go to find what
you want than this one. Look for the image mouse-overs. That's a nice touch. I wouldn't stop there, though. I'd put them with the text information as well. Overall, GMU once again proves themselves a worthy and professional web site in my mind.
They've done some changes over there at JMU. Wow. Linking the aspects of JMU with the rings is a very neat concept. Graphics are high in quality, and it did not take long to load. Overall, a very nice front page.
This page could be attractive and functional without the frames. Simple design. I like how they advertise with the "10 Best Colleges" seal. If they were a major University, it would be a bit unprofessional, but it works with this particular site.
This site takes full advantage of the browser window. A lot of schools do not do this, but if it is done effectively, I don't see why it cannot be done this way. This is a simple page. It's a fast-loading page. The graphics for "NEW" buttons are poorl
y done, and there appears to be no recurring theme.
NSU is a simple page, with one giant image map. The colors are not too wonderful. Their logo is very hard to read. If there is no way to fix that, I would recommend just removing it all together. It takes away from the impact of the site. Also, there
is almost too much balance in this, if that is possible. I viewed this at 800x600 resolution, and it fits fine. Still though, most users are still running at 640x480, and they will have to scroll horizontally, a technical no-no.
I visited this page, and it brought up a "We've moved" message. It then pointed me to the new address, http://web.odu.edu, which did not work because the server was down. I'll have to get back to you on this one. (I'll tell you one thing though. I am
glad I didn't go to ODU, because I wouldn't tolerate a front page of my own university not working. Very unprofessional.)
Okay, it is a day later, and I've returned to ODU's site. The layout makes up for the server not working yesterday. This is a pe
rfect example of the power of mouse-overs. Not only does the text highlight, but the image changes as well. Now I'm impressed.
This being my alma mater, I take a great deal of pride when speaking of or referring to RU. One exception to that may be this page. For three consistent years, the RU site has been reflective of a basic knowledge of a low effort to push academia into th
e next century. RU's color scheme is nowhere to be found on this page. The use of the mountain range on all RU official sites is a neat idea. Why, though, is the quality higher on all other sites, but grainy on the main page? The buttons tell you not
hing about what you will find if you click on them. How can RU ever be looked upon with pride or accomplishment when such poor quality is reflected on its web medium?
Here's another school that I have not heard of. SVC is a small, Mormon-oriented private school. Their page is attractive. I like the use of different fonts in the title headers. That is very professional. The main image goes with the color scheme, bu
t is very dark and drab. A simple adjustment to the brightness or intensity would be a good fix.
This page is crowded. Way too crowded. There is something to be said about the use of negative space. Negative space, or white space, is what the non-graphic-designer calls the background. Every good piece of art has both a foreground and a background
. There is no background here. UVA needs to give more attention to their use of negative space. They've boxed it all in, and there really isn't a need for that. If there were more white space, it would appear less cluttered. Also, as a suggestion, fi
nd a statue that doesn't look so old. It'll give your college a "fresh" feeling, while keeping the theme of tradition.
This page has a lot of potential. Like the front page of Radford University, the design is meant to be tiny, simple, and attractive. Also like RU's front page, it fails. Alone, with mouse-overs, the image map would be fine. Text links go on like a nov
el down below, however. There needs to be a better way to organize things. A front page should never have THAT much information on it. Break it down into sections, and make them attractive in format and design.
I've got a few tips for the VMI webmaster. The first tip would be to use a great feature in Photoshop called "color correction." The image of the soldiers is fine, it just looks like the photographer was wearing red-tinted sunglasses. My second tip wou
ld be to find a color deeper in contrast on that white background. The bright red is unattractive. I am not a fan of Java, but the pull-down menu works on this site. My third tip for the VMI webmaster is to ditch the logo. Either ditch that tacky logo
, sharpen it up, or find the original one (which hopefully was more attractive and colorful then this red and yellow thing). This page is not balanced, which suggests that a programmer designed this, not a designer.
When I first saw this page, I thought, "Geez. This looks like Netscape Composer made this one." Sure enough, when looking into the source code, I was right. After a few years of web design experience, generic-looking web pages leave a signature. This
is an example of a page with a lot of potential. There is a lot of information on this page, and if the text links were closer together, it might look better. Or, better still, perhaps buttons instead of text. The logo is fine, but the colors don't add
up. And please -- BLINKING TEXT?!?! When are we going to get it through to programmers that text blinks just flat-out Don't do that! BAD! BAD! :)~ The images are average. Try adjusting the color to at le
ast get your sky to be the same color. That would at least get some consistency going.
Tech is another site that I very much admire. It changes very often, and the appearance of this one is both attractive and professional. I just wanted to jump up and click on those buttons. If they had mouse-overs on these, they would be difficult to r
esist. Look for the fast-loading Java scroller, something I don't mind too much. I think that if the Java is fast enough, and remains simple, it can greatly benefit a page. Well done, VT.
I am not a big fan of Java. It took this page an additional 15 seconds (which for me is 15 seconds too long) on an T3 connection to load because of the Java scrolling program. The colors on the buttons are very unattractive. A common color scheme is al
l this page needs to be a very nice front page. If those were fixed, this would be one of my favorites.
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Responses: Refresh page to view latest entries.
Name: Michelle Major: International Studies Comments:
No critique of Randolph-Macon Woman's College?
Name:Jeff Major: Info. Sys. Comments:
I agree with your reveiw of ODU's page..I LOVE it! great use of color and design! =)
Name:Brian :) Major: Advertising Comments:
Sam, I agree. There are more horrendous sites out there than RU's. RU has a functional page. It is simple. VMI's is flat-out ugly. Broken links are everywhere...this is true. Although I think that it is the responsibility of the webmaster to maintai
n and regulate his/her site on a daily basis, I understand that some things fall beneath the cracks that are unavoidable. Dead links (or "link rot," as I call it, is a fact of life, and people need to know that no one can catch it all. I wish I had time
to go through all these sites and check for dead links. The only University I have inspected is this one. Whew...let me tell you...there are a lot.
Name:Sam Greene Major: Information Systems Comments:
Well, after looking at the sites in your article it seems that there are 3 to 4 that are worse than Radford's site. VMI, just to mention one. It could be worse. I think there is something to be said about what is offered at a site as well as disign tho
ugh. I think you will find some pretty sites but not much useful or updated information.
Name:Sam Greene Major: Information Systems Comments:
It's the Tech section Bp, what do you expect to read about?
Name:Brian :) Major: Advertising Comments:
Funny you mention that, Bp. I was just about to address that in the feedback before I noticed you had written something. Yes, I have a lot of free time on my hands when I do something like this. Yes, it is obsessive. Yes, I realize that the webmasters
of other schools will probably never read it so it is falling on deaf ears. There is a Vent article coming out in Whim's next edition regarding the quality of Radford's home page.
It would be foolish of me to make such an accusation without proper
background. In my research for that article, I surfed around, and these
were my findings. If you have an idea for the Tech section, how about
submitting it to join our staff?
Name: Bp Comments:
I guess the big question that most people have right now is "who cares"?
