Some
college and university websites are too complex, use campus jargon, and bury
the information students need. As a result, these sites may be damaging the
brand of their institutions and prompting prospective applicants to go
elsewhere, according to web design consultant Nielsen Norman Group (NNG).
NNG recently
tested 57 university websites and found that “users are often frustrated or
thwarted by the frequent usability problems on university sites. The best
university websites speak clearly, even to yet-to-be students, and make it easy
for everybody to find what they want. The rest fail.”
NNG put
together a list of its top 10 guidelines for college and university website
design. Topping the list is the recommendation to identify the institution
clearly on every page. That will ensure that visitors who enter the site on an
inner page via search engine will realize where they’ve landed.
Institutions
should also test their own sites, without going into a lot of expense. NNG
suggested asking just five prospective or current students to perform a variety
of small tasks on the site, such as finding information about a major field of
study or calculating the cost to attend. The test group should reflect the
school’s key audiences.
Other
recommendations include using images that accurately reflect the school,
creating a powerful summary for the About Us page, highlighting what makes the
school different from others, organizing information about academic programs,
connecting information about job placements to the alumni section, spelling out
the application process and deadlines, avoiding “hip” wording and graphics, and
making sure the site has a good internal search engine.
