New Web site encounters mixed views

Opinions on the new IU Bloomington Web site seem to vary greatly, after its debut two weeks ago.\nThe new Web site appeared on the Internet Oct. 7 and has received some favorable views both on its functions and design.\n"I think it looks a lot sharper," sophomore Laura Greenspan said. "It has more links than it used to with the pull-down menu."\nGreenspan said the location of the toolbars and a photograph on the homepage is ideal. She said she learned in Bus X201, Technology in Business, adults, including college students, tend to look at the side of the screen, and children focus on the middle of the screen. Greenspan said the Disney company's Web site uses a similar strategy to attract both adults and children.\nSome users also show concerns about the new Web site.\n"What bothers me most is the red space on the side," graduate student Guan-Jang Wu said. "There's a lot of empty space that (could have been used to) represent IU. They could have made the font bigger and added more content."\nStudents addressed the trouble in finding certain links since the new Web site uses a pull-down menu for some of the most frequently used links, such as Webmail, Insite and Oncourse. The "Find People" feature is hard to find for some students because of the use of smaller letters.\n"Webmail is difficult to find," Wu said. "I have to type in the letters."\n"It takes more time for me to navigate through the Web site."\nWu also said whether the site offers more convenience to users is still a question, as it has been in service for only two weeks.\nThe new Web site features more audience-specific links than the previous Web site, according to the Office of Communications and Marketing.\n"I created resources pages for our individual audiences in an effort to improve their experience by guiding them to the information they needed quickly and efficiently," said Jane Below, information architect for OCM. Below also said "International Resources" is a new addition to the Web site.\nTo provide faster downloading, Below said a Web project team reduced the overall number of graphics on the site. Instead, she said students can now see more photos of the campus, which she said would make the site more visually interesting.\nStudents also helped create the new Web site. Although Below and her Web team joined the project this May, the whole project lasted about a year. \n"I helped write meta tags so our Web site can be found easily by searching engines such as Yahoo and Google," said student OCM Web assistant Ashley Reszka. "I also added my input from a student's perspective as to what kind of links are useful to students, which can be seen on the current student pages."\nBelow said over 100 faculty, staff and administrators participated in the meetings, and seven focus group tests and usability testing took place with target audiences, including current and prospective students, parents, faculty and staff. \nReszka said decision-making on the content of the site gave the biggest challenge to the members because participants offered various opinions.\n"It's hard to put yourself in their position and try and think of the information that they need and how they need it to be presented," Reszka said. "For example, international students need information included on their pages, such as residence hall, dining, transportation, citizenship and directions that current students might already know."\nAlthough the new Web site is up and running, the work is not complete.\n"It's ongoing. You can always make changes," said Associate Vice President Perry Metz.