Oneupweb : How Higher Education Handles Website Design—No Student Loan Required

If you’ve been hanging out at StraightUpSearch lately, then you’ve probably noticed a trending topic with this week’s blog posts.

Revolutionizing Website Design: The New Rules of Usability is Oneupweb’s latest must-have study for anyone running a website. So we’re doing our part to share a smattering of the study’s vast findings with you, our receptive readers.

Today’s topic: Higher Education

College and university websites need to achieve a careful balance. First of all, the website must appeal to the university’s commercial interests, which are primarily the parents helping their high schoolers with researching college choices. In addition to parents, universities must also target prospective students and scholars.

But of equal importance, a university website should serve the non-commercial information needs of its current students and faculty. Information like the complexities of curriculum choices and the conundrums of daily events and procedures that exist within a busy college campus.

Therefore, design and usability are considered the key credentials of effective higher education site design.

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In our study we selected three business schools offering full-time MBA programs:

1. McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University
2. Daniels College of Business at University of Denver
3. Krannert School of Management at Purdue University

Each school’s website was graded on four main disciplines:

1. Appearance
2. Ease of Finding Information
3. Functions & Features
4. Overall Usability

And keep in mind, the internet-influenced minds of the Oneupweb staff are not the ones picking apart these fine university websites. We analyzed and digested data from a 2008 study conducted for the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC). Participants in this study included university students and staff, in addition to working professionals. Plus, we recruited and brought in our own guinea pigs for a Oneupweb eye tracking study.

So did these pacesetters of higher business education make the grade? There’s no cheating here—you have to read the study to acquire that slice of knowledge.

And if you haven’t already, check out these other blog posts about our Revolutionizing Website Design study:

• A B2B Business Plan for Web Design
• Users’ Expectations for Travel & Hospitality Websites
• 3 Guides to a Great e-Commerce Website

You won’t get a credit hour for reading our blog posts, but you will get credit for sharing this information with your peers.

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Clik here to view.