Navigation Study on Current University Websites

Prepared by Ken Kelleher for the eUB template project at the University at Buffalo-12.5.2003

Overview

University sites have one universal challenge that faces them all in terms of site architecture and navigation.

ICCMUT

What is ICCMUT?

In doing this navigation research it became necessary to form an acronym to define what is a problem for most large university websites- Immense content challenges with multiple user types

Universities have large audiences composed of many different users and user scenarios.

  • the prospective undergrad student
  • the current undergrad student
  • the prospective grad student
  • the current grad student
  • alumni
  • current faculty
  • current staff
  • parents
  • visitors
  • potential staff and faculty
  • local community visitors interested in news, events, etc
  • researchers
  • investors

all these user types with an immense amount of content to sort, filter, organize and present. hence, ICCMUT

Users are interested in accessing information relevant to their purpose in an efficient manner that is user friendly. (meets usability requirements) Site Architecture, Interface design, usability testing, and best practice research help determine the best approach.

Currently in terms of a home page, universities are addressing the ICCMUT in several different ways. Some more effective than others. I think it would lead anyone doing this research to ask the question, "Has the best approach been applied?" I think the answer is, no.

Two Typical Navigation Strategies and Site Architectures
Persistent global navigation is recommended to be the most effective site architecture for a large website. Once the channels are clearly defined, the navigation can be defined. We want to look at the current navigation and strategies used by universities and which strategies appear to work the most effectively. Some current navigation strategies are:

  • DHTML Drop Down Menus- child links generated from single parent links on rollover.
  • Pros -persistent global approach.
  • Cons -hidden links, accessibility issues, cumbersome
  • Fixed Menu System- parent and child links arranged on the page in a static layout. Typically secondary navigation in this configuration is in the right or left hand column.
  • Pros -persistent global approach.
  • Cons -limited number of links

 

Two Wayfinding Scenarios:
Two main wayfinding strategies for multiple user types are:

  • Self Identified -Dell used this in one version of their site
  • Sponsor Identified/Defined -almost all university sites...base their navigation and content strategy on this type, using research and user scenarios

Both strategies will have a limited number of channels as defined by the sponsors research on who their audience is, user scenarios, and content hierarchies. The difference is whether a user self identifies, and is directed to the appropriate channel, or whether all the channels are present for users to choose from themselves.

In almost all cases we looked at the approach has been sponsor identified, in which the web architecture is based on a known audience using an "educated guess" or research based approach to determine their channels and navigation structure.

Content Channels

In our case our current main channels are: information for, information about, news, event highlights, which each are divided into smaller sub-channels, so for the information for channel we have /Prospective Students, Alumni & Friends, MyUB, Business Partners, and Media./ We need to revaluate our channels to determine the best content strategy, i.e. best organization of our content, primary navigation groups etc.

With a template we need a strong Content strategy /Plan

For an approach it might to be wise to consider Steven Covey's advice in his "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" and that is to Learn, Commit, Do or to put it in web team lingo:

  • Analyze
  • Meet, Discuss and Evaluate
  • Recommend
  • Adapt, Change and Design
  • Implement Test and Produce
  • Publish and Produce

Although this is much harder to put into practice than first meets the eye, a hands on approach free of the typical political clutter that can sometimes riddle an organization (especially in a university - it helps if this is blessed from the top and is a top down initiative) the benefits will be numerous and multiplied many times over once the content, strategy and structure for this type of web initiative is in place.

-------Excerpt below from IA WIKI-----------------------------------------------------------

Content strategy is the who, what, why, when and where of all the information you hope to provide or impart.

A high-level document that drives design decisions for other category content activities such as the content plan and the content workflow. It can also prioritize which content should go through a thorough content audit, content inventory, or content assessment, and which should not be bothered with.

Includes:

  • tone & style w/ regard to branding
  • relevance of content pieces to core audiences (or personas or user types)
  • content relevance to conceptual model
  • broad architectural issues, such as whether it will be in content silos or deeply intertwingled.
  • requirements for content workflow
  • source of content: in house authoring, professional copywriters, re purposed content, purchased content
  • long term growth plans and content archival plans

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Typical Site Architecture

Best Practice for Site Architecture includes the logo, primary navigation, utility navigation and the footer.

See the eUB Recommendations for this project.


IA Navigation Reference

General Navigation Reference