To summarize:
What makes a good university homepage?
- Clear pathways to further information
- An uncluttered interface that serves only the users, not the wishes of every group on campus with a website that wants a link.
- Clear and consistent branding
- Pleasing graphic design that appeals to the largest target audience group of the page without alienating other groups completely
How to design a homepage:
- Identify your audiences and place them in a hierarchy of importance
- Develop a clear idea as to why these audiences are coming to the site and prioritise their tasks
- Reflect the strategic goals of the university while illustrating an image of the University
- Wrap it all in a graphic design which appeals to your largest user base, while not alienating other small user groups
2 comments:
Good words, and maybe obvious, but I've been musing about the increasing place of marketing (audience attraction if you will) on college and university home pages (and, for that matter, on department home pages).
What strikes me is that these days many academics readily acknowledge the need for reaching out to audiences. Some years ago there was much disdain for the whole marketing scene (at least among those I talked with) but not today. That's a good thing, isn't it?
Cheerily,
Dan
WOW GOLD, nice blog. its worth reading. I liked it very much
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