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In 2005, Case Western Reserve University appointed a Web Task Force, consisting of faculty, staff, student, school and department representatives, along with members of the Information Technology Services and University Relations teams, to review the university’s homepage.
The group benchmarked peer universities, conducted focus groups and reviewed available research. Here is an overview of the Task Force’s final report.
Situation Analysis
From the Case Western Reserve University homepage audiences evolve from external users to internal ones by:
- Applying for admission and confirming enrollment
- Supporting research efforts
- Giving to the university
- Requesting additional information
- Becoming engaged members of the university community via volunteering, serving on boards/committees, alumni activities
- Applying for jobs
Main Findings
Concerns
with the current main homepage include:
- Few direct calls to action
- Central menu focuses only on undergraduate audience
- The prospective students link connects to undergraduate admission pages; 60 percent of the university’s student audience is those who enroll in graduate and professional programs
- No clear messages regarding the university’s mission and values
- Populated with messages for limited sections of internal as well as external audiences
- Low visibility for main research link
- Low visibility for development link
Recommendations
The homepage should:
- Focus on external audiences
- Highlight calls to action
- Feature links that are comparable to best practices and benchmarking among other universities
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