University of Greenwich Website

[Tom]

I was asked to fill in a survey today. This is the first occasion for years that I have been asked about it. Most of the questions were about whether I find it easy to access the Health and Safety Policy and comparable items. But there was a comment box at the end of the questionnaire in which I made the following remarks - after making them, I wished I had expressed myself with less caution:-

1) Banner needs to become a user-friendly system. At present, the layout seems to have been arranged entirely at the whim of the database designers.
2) The UoG website seems to be planned as a marketing device. It does little or nothing to advance the academic and research concerns of teaching and research staff.
3) Because it does not support or publish academic interests and concerns, it falls short as a marketing device. The university is 'advertised' as a body which mainly concerned, like a secondary school, with recruiting and teaching students.
4) Apart from occasional statements, the website does not demonstrate by its content that that the UoG is a centre of excellence in the knowledge/research/consultancy
5) Nor does the website foster a community of former students, who are likely to want to keep in touch with each other and with teaching staff
6) the graphic design of the website, like its content, is looking stale

[Trudi]

The Marketing department is undergoing a significant reshuffle, with at least two members of the web team moving on... let's hope this will lead to some positive changes!

[David]

Tom, I agree with your comments and less caution might have been a good thing. I doubt very much whether they have any control over Banner and IMO it is by far the worst designed website that a HAVE to use on a regular (as little as possible) basis.

[Tom]

I will forward the email to you, so that you can lay in without any pulled punches or pussy-footing of the type I indulged in. Please post your responses on the forum!

[Trudi]

I'm not sure that anyone from Marketing would be speaking directly to the Banner team. Any constructive feedback or ideas for improving the Banner interface might be better off emailed straight to the Banner team.

As I recall, the interface they are using is pretty much straight out of the box (there are no web developers in the Banner team). There is a 'Web Tailor' manual available which mentions that custom CSS can be used (actually it makes quite interesting reading); I suspect the issue here is lack of staff resources for a redesign.

Hmmm, might make a good project for somebody...

Trudi

[David]

It's more fundamental than that. A bit of CSS might help improve the look of the thing but that's not what I object to most. It's the information architecture that I find so madening. That is a fundamental aspect of the way the system is built and not something that could be solved in-house.

[rob]

Not sorry to have left the editing of that site behind!

Been told I get to start working on the site in my new role soon! :D

[Tom]

I think the problem is 'more fundamental' than the IA. The problem lies with the 'Business Plan' (or 'Mission Statement'). WHAT IS THE WEBSITE FOR?

Because the site is run by the marketing department, they see it as a marketing tool. They forget that we are a community of academics, with teaching, learning and research at the heart of the organization. Its a bit like handing over a supermarket to a bunch of graphic designers, with no interest in findability, quality, customers or staff.