Melissa,

You make some excellent points.  I agree that the website does reflect the 
institution's priorities in a very visual way.

Lala


At 11:38 AM 5/10/2007, Melissa Burchfield wrote:
>As the discussion so far has revealed, the creation and maintenance of an
>effective website is a very complex matter: aesthetic considerations are
>important; user's navigational needs are important; compatibility issues
>with various hardware and software are important.  I think, overall, the new
>site is a huge improvement over the old one.  Chuck has also mentioned that
>the web team will be working constantly to revise the links to respond to
>frequency of use and comments from users.
>
>The comments about the link to the library are more than just an issue of
>user need, though.  The design, content and hierarchy of links represents
>the university's identity and values to the website's users.  What we choose
>for the most primary links and the order that secondary links are presented
>reflects to some degree what someone (the Chancellor, the web designer, the
>head of University Relations?) believes to be the most important aspects of
>the university, then the next most important, and so on.  Last fall when I
>had my freshman composition classes consider portions of UTC's website for
>an evaluation paper assignment, many of them perceived the ordering and
>choosing of links as an institutional expression of worth and support.
>Probably this issue of value is not consciously a part of the design, but
>it's worth thinking about.
>
>Instead of looking at other UT campus websites, I've looked at the websites
>of the national universities ranked in the top 11 (there was a tie so it's
>not just the top 10) by U.S. News and World Report.  Of those eleven
>schools, over half have "Library" or "Libraries" as a major heading/link on
>the same level as "Admissions" and "About the University" (in the location
>corresponding to the top gray bar on UTC's new site or one of the main
>headings like "Admissions" on the left column of navigation links, although
>in most cases the word itself was in bolder type or bigger than the
>navigation at those levels on our website.)  The other four or five schools'
>websites have the library as a major secondary link (as does UTC) but under
>"Academics," "Academics & Research," or "Research."  While I certainly
>believe the Library is an important resource for students, it seems to me
>that if we are going to be an educational institution at all,  the library
>is more central and important than the other departments listed under
>Student Resources (for example, "Parking").  One could argue that they have
>important libraries that deserve a more prominent listing, while we don't.
>That is, in part, exactly my point.  The placement of the link on our
>website, at least to some degree, reflects the undervaluing of the library
>and its need for higher priority, not just in web navigation, but in the
>university's core mission, planning and funding.  I don't think it's a
>coincidence that the highest ranked universities seem to see it that way.
>
>Beyond the single issue of the library link, I think the choice and
>placement of links and other aspects of design should be considered not only
>in terms of patterns of use, but also in terms of what we choose to be as a
>university.  It's impossible to know what a number of "hits" on a particular
>page or link really mean.  Each "hit" on a particular web page could
>represent a casual look around from someone who never has anything else to
>do with the university, or it could be accidental.
>
>I also think that it's useful and revealing to look at the current website
>design as a reflection of administrative choices that may not be articulated
>or acknowledged but that may still have a big effect on what our university
>is today and what it will become in the future.
>
>Melissa Burchfield
>Administrative Assistant
>University Honors Program
>
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