This week was back to a normal schedule of three sites. The first, Jackson Community College did the worst. They tried their hardest to use a single template throughout the whole site and they did it but at the cost of uniqueness of each area. I found while navigating through the site I would forget what department or area I was in because they all looked the same. It didn’t help that they used the same group of photos throughout the entire site. They did do pretty good on their code though and that scored them some extra points.

The second, Presbyterian College did better. The design was a little more flexible but still used the same layout throughout the site. It was nice not to feel like I was being bounced around from department to department. They had a little too much marketing copy than I am comfortable with which took away from the usability of the site. Overall the quality of information was much better and they got an A for that. Code on the other hand fared the worst of the three sites but a few minor changes could raise its score significantly.

Lastly, Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar did the best of the three. The design was very clean and to the point. White background and simple header and menu did their jobs and got out of the way. Finding information was a breeze and the imagery on the site was very relevant and clear. One thing I found weird was the alternating paragraph styles, every page had these styles and they were distracting. The code was A quality and I don’t have anything more to say about it.

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

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Just a few things to say about this week’s round of sites. They were overall pretty good, nothing earth shattering but at the same time they didn’t fall flat on their faces. Elon University had a super clean interface and a pretty good amount of information about their programs. They used their homepage as a pure marketing tool and that’s great to see. Too many institutions get bogged down by internal links and messaging being presented to prospective students.

Southern Illinois University Carbondale had the best code quality of the three but I ran into some major user interface and information challenges. Code alone is not going to bring in prospective students, focus on the information then visuals and code should supporting the two along the whole process.

The last site Durham College is actually a site I reviewed on the very first episode of EDU Checkup over a year and a half ago. They have since redesigned completely and the score has risen dramatically!  The visuals were a little shaky at times but the amount of information they supplied for each program was amazing! They were the first I’ve seen that included current student testimonials with each program description. Very impressive.

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

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What a great week, the first site Saint Michael’s College really felt dated. The site was designed for an 800px wide screen which makes it feel constricted. There is some movement on the homepage right as the page loads which is really distracting.

The second site University of Notre Dame – College of Arts and Letters really hit it out of the park, almost a perfect score. The design was straight forward, everything had it’s place and is easy to scan. They were the first site I have seen that included an iPhone/iPod icon in addition to a mobile style sheet dedicated to a larger smart phone screen.

The last site, Northwestern College needs some real help removing their global navigation from the left column of every page. It’s so prominent it looks like it’s the navigation for that actual page. When on a program page there ends up being four menu’s on the page, this is very confusing to the user. They did do a good a good job with the designs of the four main promotions on their homepage which was nice to see.

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

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This week’s sites were all rated high overall. The first, Southwest Minnesota State University noteworthy this month did really well. The use of color, spacing focusing on the calls to action really drive the success of this site.

The second, Saginaw Valley State University got right to the point, they remove all the unnecessary links on their homepage to focus on their primary audience. They do a great job pulling in photos of students, smiling faces and different colors. The path to information was quick and painless.

Lastly, Carl Sandburg College did something I have never seen before. They integrate the application process into every page. The signup link allows a prospective student to give up information about themselves. Even if they don’t fill out the application this is critical data for research and promotion.

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

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It was a week of firsts. LaGuardia Community College had by far the brightest colors I have seen on an institution’s Web site. The site looked like a teacher’s store, especially with the apple in the top right corner. Beyond the graphics the larger problem was finding program information, it was mildly difficult, but just a few tweaks can make a world of difference. And not to mention there was no consistency of voice on the menu items. The code of the site was at the same level as the visuals and information, it didn’t fail completely but didn’t knock it out of the park.

Scripps College deserves the A it received. The visuals overall are clean and they actually used the right column on their homepage to push the new and events, something I have not seen before. These sections are constantly updating and it is nice to see them at a glance without having to scroll. Finding program information is not a problem at all and their code is up to industry standards. Overall Scripps has a great web presence.

Lastly, Monash University was plagued with problems from the start. The 100% width was a huge distraction and eye soar. It made the pages hard to scan and really disconnected related information. As monitors get larger over time it will make variable width sites harder to use. But worse than the design finding program information was almost impossible. I was led in a loop a few times before finding program requirements. Luckily someone is looking out for the code, it scored pretty high and raised Monash’s overall score to a D-.

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

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Three sites this week, starting out pretty good was Royal Roads University. The site had an amazing use of white space and positioning. Everything had it’s place and it was easy to scan. But diving deeper the right and left columns stay static no matter which page you are on. This is great to get information on each page but takes precious real estate away from related information.

Free-Hardeman University almost hit it out of the park. The visuals and use of photography was awesome but they had a bit of an issue with lack of information for each major. Getting to each major was intuitive but then learning about them left something to be desired. Their code though was one of the few A’s, and just a few changes and it could be an A+.

Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia had more problems than I could count. For starters the homepage had announcements for current students that took prominence over prospective student areas. The second was the huge menu, six levels deep! Unfortunately the information and code didn’t get any better. I am thinking a complete overhaul is what this site needs.

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

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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

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.

Just one site this week, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign gave us a few things to talk about. The vibrant colors really pull a user into the photos. The homepage wrapped student photos with a frame that showed more movement than the typical higher ed site. The menu items being in all capitals were hard to scan, although they were in alphabetical order it is easy to loose the first letter when they are all the same case. I think one area of improvement can be applied to the use of space on the child page. On most child pages the left hand column has 200 pixels of blank space  and the right column always stays the same. If they utilized that left hand space it would shorten up the length of the pages. In addition having related items on the right hand side would allow for some call to actions above the fold related to that specific page.

Overall the site was not bad, it did what it needed to do and scored pretty average.

This Week’s Reviews

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First week of the new year started out with some great lessons. First the University of Wisconsin – Oshkosh College of Business has a very clean and easy to scan design. I wasn’t met with too many challenges but the one odd thing that stuck with me was the high prominence of an “admissions podcast” which ended up just being a single audio message. You could tell this was a non-web department decision since it didn’t add any value to the experience and a podcast is meant to be a stream of periodic updates.

The second site, Otterbein College didn’t far well at all. Initially the user is hit with a big red button that steals the attention from the rest of the page. Beyond that the navigation issues were countless. When I clicked to get more information about a program I was taken to the department homepage where I had to re-learn the new navigation to get to the program information all over again. This is not something a perspective student would have the patience for.

This Week’s Reviews

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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

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.