Savaging University Web pages
Like a web-based IRS office from the 50s.
The advertising agency Virtual Garden and WM Data fail UiO`s website.
På norsk;)
FOTO: Kamran Karimi
The universities in Oslo, Bergen and Trondheim all offer their prospectuses online.
But are the websites really user-friendly to students?
- Everything is wrong. Angle, design, simplicity- I could go on naming every important element in developing communication.
Nils Petter Nordskar, writer for and partner of the advertising agency Virtual Garden, is savaging the university websites of Oslo, Bergen and Trondheim:
- If the idea behind the websites is that they are supposed to attract potential students, then this is among the saddest I have ever seen, Nordskar says after reviewing the websites.
The marketing expert has compared UiO`s web pages to other universities:
- If this is supposed to be UiO`s answer to the competition from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), the University of Bergen (UiB) and the Norwegian School of Management (BI), then this is like replacing the national football side with a non-league team facing Brazil on the other end of the pitch.
Why is that?
- Because our most important educational institution emerges as the least creative and dynamic in Norway. All the University has to show for is a design suitable only for those who still think the world of wooden skis. That it looks like a web-based IRS office from the 50s is an awful shame.
- Escaping its potential
Klaus Torp is head of the section for consumer relations of the IT- enterprise WM Data and designer of BI`s website. He feels that the websites have been designed on the basis of the University’s structure rather than consumer compatibility. Torp uses himself as an example. He searched for new modules and information about student life.
- This is a classic mistake. The University is escaping its potential to influence students.
- A good design should make information accessible, you should be encouraged to apply, and you should be inspired to become a part of the university culture. The University of Oslo is doing the complete opposite. Here, you are facing a wall of information that is impenetrable, Torp says.
His view is supported by Nils Petter Nordskar, who concludes by underlining the importance of websites in attracting new students.
- Credible, not cool
John Baarli, managing editor of UiO`s web pages, thinks that the main goal for the University is to emerge as credible, not cool.
- Our vision is that users decide. We have to take web users of all age groups into account because we live in a world where a growing number of older people take upgrading courses, the managing editor explains.
UiO`s web pages were last upgraded in 2000. But Baarli reports that an update is underway next year.
- However, resources are scarce. This is a consideration which the advertising agency seems to have forgotten.
Web Scaring off Students
Ida Holdt (25) and Magnus Tøndevold support Virtual Garden and WM Data in their savage review of UiO`s web pages.
- I was searching the web pages several times but was none the wiser. They were so boring that I decided to consult acquaintances about what modules that could be of interest, Tøndevold admits.
Students feel that the website is scaring off new students.
- The web pages do not need to be cool. But it is appalling that they are currently almost preventing students from applying, Holdt thinks.
Unfriendly to Visually Handicapped
Jan Gunnar Haugen is working with a project providing IT- solutions for the visually handicapped on behalf of the Norwegian Association of Blind People. UiO, UiB and NTNU all fail to meet his requirements for a user-friendly website to visually handicapped.
- The importance of the internet is only increasing. The internet has completely replaced the use of paper as means of distributing student information over the last eight years. The issue is to avoid being discriminated on an arena, which is getting ever-more important for the active student and citizen, Haugen says.
- Universities should be required to publish all information in a different format accustomed to visually handicapped. I would also have provided for some hidden links that can only be heard by means of speech synthesis, he says.
Haugen thinks that web pages should be so versatile that you easily could change colour, font and size. Furthermore, it should be possible to remove pictures without affecting the quality of the contents.
