Comments on: How to Read Departmental Webpages (And How to Make Them Readable) https://blogs.swarthmore.edu/burke/blog/2012/03/06/how-to-read-departmental-webpages-and-how-to-make-them-readable/ Culture, Politics, Academia and Other Shiny Objects Wed, 07 Mar 2012 12:53:31 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.4.15 By: Michael Tinkler https://blogs.swarthmore.edu/burke/blog/2012/03/06/how-to-read-departmental-webpages-and-how-to-make-them-readable/comment-page-1/#comment-8877 Wed, 07 Mar 2012 12:53:31 +0000 https://blogs.swarthmore.edu/burke/?p=1895#comment-8877 Oh how much I agree with this!
As part of a self-study, I looked at the studio art/art history/architecture (if such a thing existed) at our standard comparison institutions. I never figured out Sarah Lawrence’s web page and declared defeat. The other 15 were differing in their approaches to confusing the visitor — but none had been designed with the clarity you suggest.
Of course, part of our problem is invisible to outsiders – our own confusing department history. We used to be a “mixed” art department, both art and art history, that took the lion’s share of duty in running an interdisciplinary program in architectural studies physically housed in our building but whose majors take about half of their coursework in things like environmental studies and urban studies. The last provost shoved the architectural studies program inside our structure, so now we’re the Department of Art and Architecture. Architecture still has its own budget, though. Very confusing! And three separate web pages on the Academics index.

]]> By: Colin Purrington https://blogs.swarthmore.edu/burke/blog/2012/03/06/how-to-read-departmental-webpages-and-how-to-make-them-readable/comment-page-1/#comment-8874 Wed, 07 Mar 2012 02:15:22 +0000 https://blogs.swarthmore.edu/burke/?p=1895#comment-8874 A big problem with web pages these days is that the content-editing interfaces are getting harder (at least at Swarthmore College), so even if faculty had “real” stuff to write, they’d need to pass it along to somebody else, and that’s a hurdle that causes most departments to have a 90s feel to them (i.e, frozen in amber). Other pages get written by committee, which quickly becomes a de facto model for future pages.

I sure wish that syllabi and online courses were viewable by students. Locking that access to just campus would be easy (stick files in .htaccess folders).

Check out Skitch of you haven’t already: http://skitch.com/ … great for circling things on screen captures.

]]> By: Kristina Killgrove (@BoneGirlPhD) https://blogs.swarthmore.edu/burke/blog/2012/03/06/how-to-read-departmental-webpages-and-how-to-make-them-readable/comment-page-1/#comment-8872 Wed, 07 Mar 2012 01:13:34 +0000 https://blogs.swarthmore.edu/burke/?p=1895#comment-8872 Yes! To everything!

The only problem is (or at least is at my grad institution) that overhauling a website is often done by committee. And that means no one ever agrees. On anything. So when I was on the website redesign committee, our dept website went from hideous colors and unnavigable to less hideous colors (but oddly not our school’s colors…) and slightly more navigable (but there was still dissent about what should be included under which menu option). It was rather infuriating to design a dept website by committee.

And as someone on the job market with a PhD, I find it hard enough to find sufficient information about some depts/schools/faculty/labs to write a proper cover letter… I can’t imagine what prospective undergrads and prospective grad students go through to find that info!

]]> By: jfruh https://blogs.swarthmore.edu/burke/blog/2012/03/06/how-to-read-departmental-webpages-and-how-to-make-them-readable/comment-page-1/#comment-8869 Wed, 07 Mar 2012 00:54:54 +0000 https://blogs.swarthmore.edu/burke/?p=1895#comment-8869 I certainly hope you’ve seen this very relevant XKCD comic.

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