Communicative Deviations

The XKCD comic is funny because it’s often true. First, look at the “things people go to the site looking for” list. Do you agree with this list? Why or why not? Second, visit a University website homepage and see if it follows the patterns listed in this comic. If so, why do you think this is the case? If not, what differences do you see and how do you think they matter when it comes to the purpose and audience for your University’s homepage?

Yes, I agree with the list, especially for our WSU homepage, because I always find it incredibly difficult to navigate from the main homepage to anything I'm looking for, even when going to mywsu. Reviewing my second community college's website I find that it is, for the most part, easier to navigate through, though the site provides an information overload, offering both new and current students all the links they'll need. The important difference is that Skagit's site actually provides the more important links right into their (tiny) navigation bar, though it still has too much bravado (in my opinion) than any website should have. For any audience, especially a fast-paced student, it's important to make it clean and simple, and make the navigation easy - like organizing folders on your computer, or putting clothes away in your closet - you don't just throw everything onto one pile, or in one folder. You organize it separately so that it's easier to find.

Many times it seems like the authors are all different, and don't work together on what is actually done for the website. Often times i believe this is a result of the commissioner and the designer; see the oatmeal for more ranting on that subject. However, since the recruiting students and managing current students seem to be such incredibly different purposes, I can kind of see how people have been having this issue for 15 years. Maybe. But really it might just boil down to communication problems, like many, many other problems in life.