College Websites
Today I searched for all the community colleges in Texas so that I could cross-reference them with some jobs I’d like to apply for. That way I can teach part-time but still have a full-time job. After the first 3 college websites, I started to get irritated. I try to avoid rants, but I thought these college websites could use some constructive criticism.
1. Make it easy to find your academic programs
Some sites stuck the link way down the middle of the page, in unalphabetized lists. Some had graphic buttons that used unusual fonts. Some buried the information in JavaScript menus so I had to mouse over all their main categories to finally find the dropdown I needed. And some just named it weird things, like Instructional Areas.
Recommendation: create a full list of all your academic programs, name that page and all the links to it “Academic Programs,” and put it very near the top left of your college website.
2. Make it easy to read your website
There were countless offenses of dark text on dark backgrounds, very small unreadable text, and unusual fonts.
Recommendation: keep most of the text on your college website plain old black and white, using an easy-to-read font like Arial. Use something a little fancier but still easy to read like Georgia for headings. And if you’re going to put anything on a background that’s not white, use a very dark background with large white text.
3. Don’t bury your information.
Many college websites do have an Academic Programs section, but once I’m there, I do not want to have to click “View All” or sort courses by school. Just put the schools on there as headings, if you want to keep them at all. On some college websites, I couldn’t find an Academic Programs section at all, and I had to dig around to find a college catalog. (In PDF format, of course, so I had to sit there and wait for a huge download and then try to find the information I wanted out of hundreds of pages.)
Recommendation: Do some usability testing. Find out who your target audiences are (for community college websites, you probably have: prospective students, current students, parents, team fans, employees, and prospective employees) and then survey them to find out what they are looking for. That way you can design your college website for the users. Pretty similar to the recent focus on student-centered learning.
4. Make it easy to find out where you’re located.
Sure, you know where you are, but when I’m conducting searches to find all the community colleges in the state, I have no idea that you have 5 different campuses.
Recommendation: Make a prominent page that lists your campuses. Call it something super simple, like “Locations.” (Campuses would probably be acceptable, but again, think of your users: they’re probably used to using the word Location in all their searches. Go with the first thing people would think of.)
A map would be great – two maps would be better. One local map to show exact locations, one larger map to show where you are in the state. An excellent example of a group of community colleges is the Dallas County Community College District. Their chart of all their courses, and which campuses they are offered at, is outstanding.
