OUR OPINION: The new prototype design for www.ncsu.edu is sharp, useful and is leaps and bounds beyond peer universities’ sites when it comes to quality, not to mention the process the Website Advisory Committee used to determine the best direction to take. The site was near-perfect and should be mirrored by other campus entities.
The Website Advisory Committee is unveiling the new prototype design for www.ncsu.edu today, which is getting its first significant facelift in four years. The committee gave the Technician an opportunity to view and critique the prototype design last week before they made it available to the public today.
Historically, we are very critical of anything the administration and higher-ups do to improve campus, student life, etc. However, the University has hit a home run with the new Web site design.
Sleek is the first word that comes to mind. The appearance of the site is very professional, but flashy at the same time. It blows our old site out of the water and makes UNC-Chapel Hill’s Web site look like it was designed by a third-grader.
Usability is also a major plus for the prototype because it is now easier to find things you need such as telephone numbers, professor e-mail addresses and academic information, like registration dates.
Above all, the new design will serve as a top-notch recruiting tool for the University. It tells various feature stories of students and faculty via short articles, pictures and video. If a school’s Web site is a determining factor in a prospective student’s decision to apply or enroll, we certainly have the upper hand.
But it goes beyond that.
Both internal and external users will be able to navigate the site faster and easier and find vital information. That is the main purpose of having a Web site in the first place.
On top of all the new goodies, which include the ability to customize quick links and the visual appeal the prototype offers, the University has appointed a four-person staff to oversee the operation of the site full-time — something that our current site doesn’t have.
This will ensure the continual innovation and improvement of the site and make it much more versatile. In many respects, our Web site is the portal, a gateway of sorts, to our school and it is important that it looks good and functions flawlessly; for the benefit of everyone with an inkling of relation to N.C. State.
We look forward to the implementation of the new site, probably sometime in the summer, but most importantly, we applaud the Website Advisory Committee for taking everyone’s suggestions and requests into consideration to make the best site for all users.
The new design is something to be proud of.
