- ninky
Facebook is a glorious thing. I found group that is giving feedback on ASU web, so I joined it. I think it would be a great place to engage in a frank discussion about our web presence.
CALLING ALL DRUNKEN BRONTOSAURUSES! (aka web designers and developers at ASU)
Wednesday, December 5th, 2007 - 11:55 am
ouch. Although, we have to realize that a lot of these facebook comments were made during the first portion of the implementation. things have gotten a ton better since then, with all the improvements folks on campus have been making. I think we could at least be considered Tyrannosaurus Rex now ;) j/k, we keep making improvements!
Wow, reading those comments really bothered me until I realized that most students (and I'm sure they were all from students) don't care that PeopleSoft is its own thing. Alll they see is a single experience on the ASU Web. After all, why shouldn't they? We've taken the trouble (me, in particular) to brand the system with the Arizona State University template. Hate the "Processing" blinking text? Outraged that there's no site-specific navigation on most of the screens? Well, guess who's responsible? That's right - the big red logo in the top left basically says "Hate ASU". And it should. This is our system, whether we built it from the ground-up or not. The distinction between PeopleSoft and the rest of the ASU Web is obvious to us, but no one else cares.
I know the students' comments were quite strong, but they were honestly frustratated with how things were working on the web (mostly PS) at the time of these posts. I think you brought up a huge point, though Chris. We see the web in respect to the sections each group is responsible for (UTO, OASIS, PCG, USITS, the Colleges, etc.) but the students see it as *one experience*. That's huge.
Its been great to watch the culture around here change and become so much more collaborative (seriously, this is a different place than last year). But this is just extra confirmation (from our most important users) that we should continue being collaborative, continue helping each other, and continue to build our web community.
We found some ironically relevant shirts last night: never forget. And Nina made the point that we should never forget that students don’t differentiate their online experience.
Point taken.
I think if user-centered design was formalized in ASU Web development, user experience (and usability) would improve. By focusing on the users' goals and objectives (and not what the developers think are the users' goals and objectives), favorable user experiences ensue. I recently redesigned the UTO Polytechnic Website (http://www.poly.asu.edu/it/) as a part of my graduate applied project. Much of the content is outdated (which was outside the scope of my redesign), however the navigation menu and home page content was completely overhauled based upon user data obtained through card sorting activities, web log analysis, and help desk technician interviews. The comments I have received on the current site, particularly on information findability, have been mostly favorable. I had originally redesigned this site a little over a year ago (without involving users) and to simply put it, the site was not usable. With this in mind, the ROI (return on investment) on user testing is often unrealized or underscored. My point being, redeveloping or redesigning Web sites is costly, especially when it is necessary from a usability perspective. If current ASU Website redesigns and new ASU site deployments would adopt UCD and iterative processes, it is my strong belief that both the site users and ASU would greatly benefit in many areas, including user satisfaction, efficiency, productivity, costs, and so on.