Know-How Exchange : Website Critique

1. What's the objective of the website? Why was there a re-design project? It's hard to critique if we don't know what success looks like, what you're trying to accomplish, or what we're supposed to be using as a standard.

2. All the words in your segmentation bar are singular except "alumni." Any particular reason why that one is plural?

3. There's a lot of text on the page and not many pictures (except in the header). Was that a conscious decision? Why? The web is, after all, a visual medium, right?

OK. My comments:

1. New site is better than old site because it has pictures of humans and is therefore more friendly and engaging.

2. I'd put more pictures on the site if it were up to me. It will break up all the heavy copy on the homepage and make the site more inviting.

3. Yes, best if your segmentation options were all singular or all plural.

4. Layout and overall appearance are very traditional. If that's the image you want to project, that's fine. If you wanted to appear more contemporary, you'd need to find a different template or get a professional designer involved.

5. And if you know how site visitors are using the site now, you're probably the best judge of whether the new look meets their needs. If you don't know how they're using it, I'd urge you find out. You're serving a lot of different masters, and if 80% of the usage is by 20% of the audience, I might modify the site to be ideal for that 20% and make the other folks click a few extra times to find what they need. It's hard to be all things for all people, and when you try you're often sub-optimal for everyone.