eduStyle || 3 Things - North Carolina State University

In August 2007 North Carolina State University launched a redesigned home page. In this "3 Things" Cindy Couldwell tells us what she does and doesn't like about this site.

3 things Cindy likes

Big, Bold Menu

The big and bold menu directs the eye to a simple list of options. This menu is not shy. It invites the user to check out the site. It screams simplicity. It makes me believe the rest of the site will be easy to navigate.

Big, Bold Call to Action

So many websites forget to give their users a call-to-action. Your users came, so what is the most important task you want them to do? There’s no doubt what North Carolina State University wants… they want you as a student.

Lots of Info, No Overload

This page is pretty much on par with the amount of information presented on most higher ed websites (maybe a little less). But the layout is so clean and clear that you don’t get the overload. They use colour coded boxes to break up the information. Similar items are grouped together. And I really like how the News (blue) and Featured News (green) commence with a colour box and end in the same colour box. It bookends the information and directs you to get more.

3 things Cindy doesn't like

Future Students

I am a huge advocate of not using terms like prospective student and future student. These are terms used by administrations to describe students; these are not terms used by students to describe themselves. It’s like going to the Canadian Tire website and forcing the user to select between a Current Customer link and Prospective Customer link. No one does that. No one knows what that means. It makes no sense. Sites simply deliver the goods they have up front. In the case of a university, those goods are the programs, courses, research accolades and student life. No need to hide them under Future Students.

Get the Latest Flash Player

The sad fact is I’m not going to download the latest Flash player to look at whatever magical presentation you’ve devised to entice me into your school. Either it works when I get there or I will never ever see it.

Things Moving on the Page

I find anything that moves on the page, including this series of rotating images, to be very distracting. I know you want to get the most into that space to entice students to check out the campus tour, but it’s hard to concentrate on the rest of the information. Is the campus tour so important as to sacrifice the users’ attention?

About the Author

Cindy Couldwell is the Website Designer at the Department of Computing Science, University of Alberta. Check out her portfolio at ccouldwell.com . Here are a few sites that Cindy Couldwell likes.

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3 Things - North Carolina State University