Both sites this week did a great job! Their scores would have been higher but the code category pulled them down. The first, Deeside College had by far the most calls to action I have seen on a college site. Every page had at least one or two buttons for next steps and multiple options for a student to get a hold of an actual person. Phone, Email, Text and even live chat. The visuals and colors were vibrant and exciting. The site would have totally got an A if the code was more optimized. Something very simple but can potentially make the world of different for users.

The second site, Carnegie Mellon University – Heinz College didn’t far so well on visuals. The site overall is pretty bland, it sticks directly to their identity. The rigidness of the templates made the site feel cold to me. But they did a good job putting related information to the degree programs in the side columns, the “How much can you earn?” is a good touch. Like Deeside though the code quality really brought the site grade down, but again a few simple things can make a world of difference.

If you’re interested in having your university (or one of your competitors) reviewed publicly or privately feel free to submit your site. Over half of the sites reviewed on EDU Checkup are by request.

This Week’s Reviews

Site	Visual	Information	Code	Overall
Carnegie Mellon University – Heinz College – Episode #139	86	85	72	(243/300) 81% B-
Deeside College – Episode #138	97	97	70	(264/300) 88% B+

Keep up up with @educheckup on twitter and RSS for more site updated in the coming weeks. Or if you prefer, an iTunes feed is available so you can get new episodes automatically.

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 23rd, 2010 at 7:49 am and is filed under EDU Checkup. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.