USI Website Critique and Comparison

There are only a few things that I think works for USI's website. The site is easy to navigate and the all the important news and information are easy to find. Searching for a specific item or page is simple because the search bar is easily recognizable and the results page is usually very helpful. Sometimes the search results are completely wrong, but that happens on most major search engines too, so not a big deal. I like how the calender and the campus news are together in the middle of the page, but separated enough that they aren't running together.I like the left side navigation a lot. It's very simple and clean. I would take the tabbed links on top of the site, and move them into the left navigation box. I feel that the tabbed links looked out of place and ugly.

I like the main and important news and images that scrolls at the top of the page. It catches my attention every time I load the page and makes me want to read the stories. That being sad, I feel that the size could be reduced some. Right now it, the scrolling news and images seem to dominate the page. I like the very top USI name and logo. I feel it fits well with the pages theme and is very clean and simple. I also enjoy the faded picture behind the left navigation bar. It makes the navigation box to stand out. The images in-front of the main news and events in the middle of the pages is also a good touch. It catches my attention and sometimes make me interested enough to read the article. Sometimes however, the images have nothing to do with the news and/or events. Few times I saw images that seem to be thrown there because they didn't have an image for it. I feel that the site needs more images of USI students and of the campus. The site offers some good images, but not a good variety.

I feel that the USI website needs to have less colors. Right now, the site looks like a clown puked on it. It has way to many colors and hurts my eyes if i stay on the page too long. I understand that they are our school colors, but there has to be a better way to have the colors on the site. I do think we need either more pictures on the site or arrange them better to make the site more eye friendly. Less color and more or better use of images would make USI's website more appealing and easier to use. I would also like to see either a reduction in the amount of navigation bars or a combination of the similar navigation links.

Prospective students expect to find the campus's news and events on the home page. I believe that USI's website succeeds in doing that. They also expect either links to admissions or information about classes and the college. I think they would also like to see pictures of the campus and of actual students at events or around the campus. Which I feel the website needs. They don't care about accreditation stuff , sponsors and foundations. I would rather see more stuff about events and news that are going on around campus. More pictures of the campus and students make would make me feel like the campus cares about the students and are proud of their campus.

Right now, USI's website looks way to "flashy." It has a lot of good elements, but it has to much. Anyone visiting the site for the first time wont want to stay on the page for very long because it's not very eye friendly. The site needs some "flash" but looks like the designers threw everything they can think of that's appealing on the page.

I personally love USI's News and Information page (http://www.usi.edu/newsinfo/index.asp). It's very clean and easy to navigate. I like how the main or important news stands out over the other news. The picture and how they did the headline draws me in and makes me want to read the whole article. I also like that they have photo gallery or show on the right side. The left navigation bar is really easy to navigate. It's simple, clean, and categorized so you can find what you need quickly. Finally, I like they bring over the homepage news and shows other important news and events that are happening on campus bellow the main news article. This keeps the students well informed without navigating through multiple pages.

I absolutely love Purdue's website (http://www.purdue.edu/). Its very very clean and not flashy. They use their school colors very well in the design making it easy to the eye. I like how they did the scrolling pictures for their main news or events. It's easy to navigate and very appealing to users. There isn't a lot of different navigation bars and is very clean; which makes navigating the site very easy. The way they placed the search bar is also nicely done. It's easily recognizable and doesn't dominate the page or design. Purdue used the same format for their news and calender like USI. Its very clean and students can be informed without being overwhelmed.