This week seemed like a flop, Western Illinois University got a “D” and Hope College got an “F-”, but there are some pretty important lessons here. The first is as you can tell from the screen shots above the web changes fast, your users will know in a few seconds how much effort you put into your site. the two sites look like they were designed over five years ago. Interestingly enough Western Illinois looks like it was only launched a year or so ago (from what I can tell).

The second is navigation creep. The navigation for the two sites probably accomplished all the users and institutions needs when they launched. But over time things have been added/moved/removed which deteriorated the effectiveness. The most apparent is the right column of the Western Illinois University site, it is now packed and nothing stands out anymore. Lets take a ride on the Way Back Machine to see how clean the right column was when the site launched. It’s a shame.

This Week’s Reviews

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