The meeting on Wednesday went well. Below is the priority list I
shared with the group. It looks like we can accomplish 1 and 3,
but the group asked for more guidance on 2] Easier and more logical
Navigation. I pulled out text related to this area below and included
all of the feedback as well.
Can you look at this navigation point again and give more specificity
that will help improve it?
Thanks so much again for ALL your hard work on this,
Kristina
Priorities
1] Showcase student, faculty and gallery work
a) a more human approach observed by Ryan from feedback
b) videos showing art and design process
From Michael David: Maybe a brief video of a faculty demonstration, like
Nathan Goldstein doing a drawing or Jane developing a photo...show how rich our
programs are. Maybe video interviews of faculty about teaching at AIBfff
c) student and faculty website links
note: Matt Nash mentioned that for the MFA program, Louise Goldenberg and
for AIB graduation Fred Levy have collected a lot of student/faculty work
2] Easier and more logical navigation
3] Updated information
a) some pages date back to 2003 Abby pointed this out
b) Can AIB be in control to update their own information?
Other thoughts:
Keep AIB visual standards in mind. Use catalog design as a model.
Art and Design students need and love lots of exciting visuals
Navigation
2) clearer menu structure. Sort by who the visitor is and then show them the information they will want to see. Sorting by pre-college/applicant/student/faculty/alumni could make the choices clearer.
2. Easier, logical navigation
A Site easier to find and use, easier to find info and interact with.
Parsons Pro: Navigation is easy to use
MassArt: Pros: Easy navigation at the top and bottom of the page
SMFA Pros: Clean and easy to use navigation
AIB: Our current site stacks up pretty nicely to the competition, nav is clean and consistent - perhaps too busy, but always there and understandable
3 tiers of navigation is awkward but becomes clear after 2 or 3 page views
Finally, There should be MORE! More info, more pictures on the first page, I know there are links in that upper nav bar but when I opened
the site I thought, "That's it?" Then I saw the nav bar.
A collection of comments on AIB’s current site and the competition
October 31, 2007
Top 3 priorities for immediate change
Ryan
1) remove changing background picture every time the mouse goes over a menu choice. moving the mouse slightly produces an almost vertigo-like effect when scrolling over menu choices.
2) clearer menu structure. Sort by who the visitor is and then show them the information they will want to see. Sorting by pre-college/applicant/student/faculty/alumni could make the choices clearer.
3) consolidate navigation with a drop-down menu and a dynamic menu and a smaller menu in the lower right hand beneath the graphic, there are too many places to go in order to navigate. The KISS method applies here. One stop shopping navigation.
Abby
My general goal is to have a website that provides accurate, up-to-date and
engaging information for prospective and current students.
My top three practical recommendations for improving the website would be:
1. Updated information
2. Easier, logical navigation
3. Adding faculty and alumni profiles and galleries.
Bob Gielow
Our Work: We are what we create
Student work
Faculty work
AIB graduate's work
Our People: Creating is our life
Faculty profiles and credentials with links to websites
Student profiles
AIB graduate profiles
Helpful staff contacts
Our Cities: Boston and Cambridge
Why Boston is the ultimate college town
Links to area museums and galleries
Boston, Harvard Square and Red Sox links
Andrew Mroczek, Gallery
Here are some suggestions:
1. the gallery should have it's one page with an easily accessible calendar
page directly off the general AIB homepage.
2. how about having the space to view an archive of past exhibits with
images.
3. I also think that each gallery (601-main-U-Hall) should have it's own page.
Susan Levan
1. Greater transparency - ease of finding what you're looking for either by
browsing or searching
2. More speed - to facilitate ease of use
3. faculty and student art -
a. it's outrageous that there's no faculty art attached
to bios (you shouldn't have to go to a link, there should be at least one piece
imbedded for every core and adjunct, if possible, and the option of links)
b. the ittty bitty bit of student art currently on the website is older than my
tenure at the institution...there should be much more of it and it should be
up to date - at least modified on a regular basis
Michael David
More faculty profiles and artwork (probably already suggested)
I think "kids" like fast moving images or videos with sound over reading or
single images
Student "Art" Life...NYC trip, openings, critiques...maybe as continuing
visual updates of what is happening at the school via videos or image
series, taken by the students.
Virtual tour of the school, floor by floor, capturing students, faculty and
staff at work, leisure...
A Site easier to find and use, easier to find info and interact with.
Maybe a brief video of a faculty demonstration, like Nathan Goldstein doing
a drawing or Jane developing a photo...show how rich our programs are
Maybe video interviews of faculty about teaching at AIB
Of course these videos would have to be very professional and exciting.
Christopher James
1. Good Design
2. Student Work
3. Faculty Work and links to their web sites
Design alumni, Cameron Smith
First off, "Let's Wake Up the World"- I remember from my senior year that this caused a big controversy. My opinion on the tagline hasn't changed- I think it's confusing to potential students and I don't see a connection between that statement and AIB. I know this has nothing to do with the design of the site, so I won't count that in my top three. :)
1) I'd like to see the homepage more integrated as it is on the rest of the site. The top navigation area and the bottom information area seem very separate. I feel like you get a good idea of the AIB experience on the rest of the site, but the homepage is lacking an immediate connection with the viewer.
2) Change the images that pop up in the nav area more often- there's a great opportunity here to connect with the visitor immediately through dynamic imagery.
3) I'd like to see AIB's red/orange PMS color used more on the site, especially on the home page. You have a strong, integrated brand and I'd like to see more of a reflection of that on the design of the site.
Illustration/Design Alumni, Russ Gossett
Architecturally:
Clearer, dynamic student work section (I remember the old aiboston.edu when I was applying many moons ago and seeing all the student work...it was on the homepage...art schools should showcase artwork, in addition to the student life w/ images...see also: http://sva.edu
Aesthetically:
Exciting new backgrounds, more colors, student artwork, textures, patterns and more expressive typography...but that's a given...I'm sure everyone says that.
From Sam Hamilton, Illustration alum
Change the main picture, it has too many grays and my eye keeps going to the figure all in black working on the painting.
I know this is an ongoing struggle but the news highlighted on AIB's page is about Lesley stuff. If I was a prospective art student I
would want to know what artist's are lecturing, what shows are up or going to be up, what kids are doing at school as far as clubs or
extracurricular ART things not Lesley things.
Finally, There should be MORE! More info, more pictures on the first page, I know there are links in that upper nav bar but when I opened
the site I thought, "That's it?" Then I saw the nav bar.
The competition: RISD, MassArt, SVA, BU School of Art, Parsons, Montserrat, SCAD, Pratt
Ryan's take on the competition-
RISD-
The navigation changes from the splash to the landing pages. Changing from in-the-photo to below-a-masthead-photo and a left hand menu. I also think that the moving menu text on the front page is annoying, and while it might be fine for the undergrads, there are links for parents, grad students, and people looking to give money. They deserve something more traditional. I also like the videos, but they do not have any prominence on the screen I had to really search to know they were there. All in all, the only part that led my eye anywhere was the moving text and the flashes of saturated orange on an already warm colored photo (all the photos were white balanced towards warm) They then under-used these contextual clues on the landing pages, with no moving text and various shades of orange which might or might not signify a link. Overall, I think it's well structured, and delivers the right message. "RISD is focused on the students who study here." And the pictures and video testimonials do that job. However, the consistency of color meaning as well as video-game-y finnicky navigation leave something to be desired.
Mass Art-
The design isn't liquid, it stays anchored to the left side regardless of how big your monitor or computer window is. The menu isn't very inviting and seems institutional, and the blurred desaturated photo behind the text is a very poor solution to problems of readability. The pages that follow are text heavy and uninteresting. All in all, I find it unimpressive.
School of Visual Arts
While I like how they have new/current work and exhibitions available I found the design, cluttered and unwilling to make hierarchical choices. I can't help but ask where they are trying to lead my eye. The color scheme is uninviting and we get an unfortunate amount of "type-soup" with the many changing banners in the center column. If you add the amazingly bad new continuing ed campaign (page curl? a teddy bear artist?) to the story, I truly am wondering what has happened to SVA.
Boston University College of Fine Arts
One of the best landing pages of the group with a color scheme that seems to carry on the color meaning to the different fine arts departments. While it might be a little bit sparse and have a lot of whitespace I think it makes the site feel elegant.
Parsons – The New School
A bit too "tech" feeling for me. But is easily navigable and well laid-out. While the BU CFA felt more elegant this feels a little cold.
Montserrat
So boring I thought it was 1998 again. The logo, the colors, the whole site put me to sleep. They are in serious need of a redesign.
SCAD
Not bad though a little generic. I think they could do more to lead the eye to the navigation and to make stringer use of color. All in all though this is a clean well done site with good navigation.
Pratt
Let me add my voice to the "I hate this site" chorus. Not much to say other than the right side navigation when seen on a wide screen 24 inch LCD becomes ludicrous. Right-align done totally wrong. The Pratt name often becomes unreadable, and the expanding left nav obscures the page and becomes unusable. This is just bad.
--
Posted By Ryan Torres to AIB web task force at 10/05/2007 08:08:00 AM
SVA:
Pros:
I like that they integrate the student work right on the undergraduate “department” pages.
I like the About SVA section because it shows the interaction between the city, the school, the faculty and the staff.
Cons:
The front page is too busy; I like the idea of the background but when you combine it with the changing images it becomes too much.
Their portfolio guide, for example, are a little wordy; even the shorter version of the guide is hard to take in at once.
The whole site is wordy, when you get down to it.
It is easy to navigate but there is a lot of info so if you’re just browsing it can be overwhelming.
MassArt:
Pros:
Easy navigation at the top and bottom of the page
The online “campus tour”
Extensive faculty bios by each major
Their news page is actually relevant!
Cons:
I just don’t like their website design overall. The text is too small, the entire right hand side of the page is not being utilized, it’s too text heavy.
The online campus tour is a good idea but the actual video is cheesy!
SMFA
Pros:
Clean and easy to use navigation
Seems to have content that is updated frequently
Three different galleries of work to choose from
Cons:
A little boring.
RISD
Pros:
Their student videos are fantastic because they give a wide variety of viewpoints.
Overall it is easy to navigate but still text heavy.
Their student profiles.
Cons:
Their main navigation, with the floating links, is irritating.
Pratt:
Pro: They have student galleries.
They do a good job of matching the language on the site with their target audience.
Con: Ugly!
Their navigation doesn’t really work for me, doesn’t seem easy to use and I had a hard time finding certain information.
Not easy to use and not very attractive, including the galleries.
Parsons
Pro: Navigation is easy to use
Their perspective student’s page is nice and would be very helpful to a visiting or interested student.
Con: The design seems a little dated, a bit boring.
SCAD:
Pro: The first impression of this site was positive … until the image changed to something ugly.
The least amount of text on the sites I’ve seen so far which makes it easy to read and navigate.
Cons: Too many options might be overwhelming to prospective students who just want to request a catalog, etc.
Montserrat
In general it has a dated design and isn’t engaging.
The information is clear and easy to read, on the portfolio page, for example.
--
Posted By Abby to AIB web task force
MassArt
Homepage is clean, left nav gives access to all layers of site immediately
The overlapping navigation sections are confusing
Site nav seems to be very inconsistent throughout, requiring memorization of iconography and relearning nav structure every few pages
Redundant landing pages on sections creates unnecessary site depth
While each section features images, which is good, images load slow and are too small to be illustrative
RISD
Clean home page, image changes upon reload making content fresh
moving links visually interesting but hard to navigate
type is very small
expanding news section on homepage is very nice
video promo on homepage is nice
large images at the top of subpages is a nice way to showcase the school
cascading left nav makes site depth easy to negotiate
SMFA
Flash homepage way to active, it is distracting
Changing content is great, however this change too fast to read some of the text
nav remains consistent and clean throughout site, which is nice
site depth is kept minimal, linking between subsections and other main sections easy
plenty of images
structurally, this site is really nice -- that the design is a bit ugly would be my only major complaint
PRATT
What is up with the big ugly news block on the right?
my first response to the cascading left nav was that it was nice and easy to use, but with use it becomes cumbersome. Why limit all of your site information to a narrow column?
the upside of the singular nav/info structure is that there is almost no site depth
PARSONS
Clean, easy to read homepage
consistent nav
very few images, all of them small
site depth very limited, easy to find way around
porfolio link in top nav leads to a section featuring a lot of images of student work - very nice
SVA
Wow, that's ugly.
The changing images are a good idea, but too busy
navigation is small and hard to find
once you get into the site, the nav is consistent and fairly easy to negotiate
It looks like they were trying to go for a messy/arty look, but the narrow column design limits navigation and content. They tried to solve it with orange arrows, but the overall design is so messy it's unclear immediatly that this arrow is information
the actual site content is pretty clean, with minimal site depth. nav is a mess.
SCAD
I like how clean the homepage is, images change at a reasonable pace
popup menu is nice, except that the Programs of Study dropdown is a bit overwhelming
quick links to Scad Atlanta and other programs on the right is a nice use of space
this site is all about getting the job done, it's clean, deep but easily navigated. nav is easy to find, easy to use.
Montserrat
Easy to understand nav, good depth with relatively straighforward travel through site Was this designed in 1994?
AIB
Our current site stacks up pretty nicely to the competition, nav is clean and consistent - perhaps too busy, but always there and understandable
Site is not as "arty" as SMFA, RISD or SVA but - as SVA's site proves - too much "art" can be a bad thing in a website
3 tiers of navigation is awkward but becomes clear after 2 or 3 page views
consistency of design makes it easy to figure out what is where - however why does consistent have to also mean boring?
Right now, I think our site most closely compares with SCAD - it is an online catalog that feels clean, simple and easy to navigate. I think one of our complaints about the site thus far has been that the cleanliness and simplicity make it feel too institutional.
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Posted By Matthew Nash to AIB web task force
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