FIU’s new Web site, Part II: The science behind the site

When it came time to redesign FIU’s home and top-level pages, Web developers turned to those with the greatest stake in the matter – its users.

By Karen Cochrane

One of the first things Matt Herzberger did after accepting the challenge of redesigning FIU’s home and top-level pages was add a “Website feedback” tab to the home page. Director of the university’s Office of Web Communications, Herzberger knows one of the great ironies of Web site development is that this complex undertaking is most often successful when creators ask themselves one deceptively easy question: What’s the simplest, most logical way to get from point A to point B? So it made sense to Herzberger that if he wanted to know what users thought of the current site, he should ask them directly.

In the weeks and months after adding the tab, hundreds of comments poured in. Web designer Fabian Alcantara read every one. In fact, he indexed and categorized them by complaint: too slow, too many links, broken links, where is the academic calendar?, too much information on the home page, and needs better organization.

Here are some actual comments:

“I’m so glad that the website is going to undergo a redesign; it’s the busiest and most byzantine university website out there.”

“I hate this website. Every single thing I want to do is extremely complicated… I wish it was a lot simpler.”

“It’s an over-crowded website with tons of unwanted information on just a single page. The main problem is its complicated layout which is difficult to browse…Suggestion is to make it simple and more attractive for common students because all of them look for same type of information on educational websites.”

“There needs to be a real concentrated focus and strength in the “information architecture” for the main FIU site. Need to really prioritize the focus of the main web.”

Last year, Herzberger, Alcantara and Web developer Andre Oliveira conducted usability tests with current FIU students. (Check out the test in the video below.) Combined with the online comments, a pattern began to emerge.

“The general consensus is that the current FIU Web site is bogged down with too much information,” says Alcantara. “The result is that people can’t find anything.”

Herzberger likens the current site to an inverted pyramid. He says it’s time to shake things up. “We’re going to attempt to flip that pyramid right side up again.”

At the same time they were gathering the feedback, the group was studying hundreds of university Web sites. The group gained “a ton of inspiration” from William and Mary’s site, according to Herzberger.

“Users are asking for something cleaner,” says Alcantara. “They just want to be able to find the information they are looking for.”

Below is part II of the news team’s interview with the Web designing trio. In this segment, they talk a bit more about their testing and what users can expect in the new site, which will launch in April.

Part III: Take a peek at the new site.

Other articles in this series

• FIU’s new Web site, Part I: Why the redesign?
• FIU’s new Web site, Park III: A sneak peek