Comments on: #WednesdayWrite: Website Audience Analysis

By: Christian Arroz

Christian Arroz — Mon, 12 Feb 2018 00:25:18 +0000

The emphasis on the school’s initiatives is present heavily on their main page. I agree with Kimberly, the headers and titles are labeled “Our Programs,” “Our People,” “Our Community,” etc. which don’t hold much information about deadlines, forms, or directions on how to get to the school. They have several portals to donate on the main page and on subsequent links as well. There are several articles on the school’s involvement with the expansion of Virginia Tech and with Virginia companies around the state. News and prowess seems to be the centerpiece here

By: Kelvin Prempeh

Kelvin Prempeh — Sun, 11 Feb 2018 20:46:02 +0000

I totally agree with you Nathan. The Civil and Environmental Engineering web page looks appealing but searching for information can be irritating. There are always links upon links to get one piece of information. News and articles should be secondary to the departments web page to provide easy access to needed information.

By: Clement Boateng

Clement Boateng — Sat, 10 Feb 2018 23:34:34 +0000

I totally agree with Danielle’s comments on the Civil Engineering website. The website highlights honored people within the the department, and provide links about the the different disciplines under Civil Engineering which is somewhat useful. I think the website does not necessarily meet the needs of the users because people do not visit it to see honored individuals.
The most significant information I visit the website for is the department’s check sheet which is not so easy get from there. I am sure students visit the website for that as well. Another information is the dates for important upcoming department events such as ASCE meetings. Those information should be the first thing on the website because most people visit it for that. One has to use the search engine, and dig through lots of links to locate events, and that is not a good idea.

By: Cassie Bienert

Cassie Bienert — Fri, 09 Feb 2018 20:12:44 +0000

This is the link to VT’s Animal and Poultry Sciences Webpage: https://www.apsc.vt.edu/

A lot of prospective freshman will visit this webpage to learn about the major. If they are choosing to major in animal sciences because they “love animals,” then the webpage does a good job catering to that. It features a scrolling picture banner of cute farm animals interacting with people. A lot of current students will also visit this page and unfortunately there is no direct links to major requirements, research opportunities, job openings, etc.. Thus, for current students, the page is lacking. There is however, a big dark red “Give Now” button so obviously the department is emphasizing donations. On the bright side, the contact information is very accessible so further information should be easy to acquire. This might be a strategy for get prospective students to invest more energy and actually talk to someone in the department

By: Jeremy C.

Jeremy C. — Fri, 09 Feb 2018 17:07:38 +0000

I love the idea that the major checksheet should be interactive. It’s true, every time I pull up the checksheet, I also pull up the timetable to research the classes I need. This is an unwieldy that I’m sure I have done over 1000 times. Perhaps the DARS report could show a visualization of the path towards graduation. Classes that have been completed could be highlighted and selecting individual classes could provide additional information pertaining to that class.

By: Faizal Zulkifli

Faizal Zulkifli — Fri, 09 Feb 2018 07:20:31 +0000

As a ChemE student, I definitely agree with your comments and I do think the department needs to do some adjustments to this webpage if they really want to have a useful website for us ChemE students. There are many important things that can be highlighted in the main page such as the information of our adviser as that is the person we students would always refer to if we are experiencing any academic problems. So instead of putting out articles and stuff why not putting a little section above about the adviser’s contact information which is easy for us students to find instead of having to search for it. The menu options also needed to be more organized though as it is quite confusing for me sometimes when scrolling through it to find specific information.

By: shuai liu

shuai liu — Fri, 09 Feb 2018 06:15:03 +0000

Recently, i often go the home page of the VT: https://vt.edu/. because i am taking a web design course and our project is to design a website that can satisfy all the devices like desktop, mobile and tablet. the reason i often check the VT home page is after they released the new website last semester they had some really nice features.(even many people complain s about the UI design) the new design are able to handle all the device with different screen size, and it has nice tab bar for mobile devices. if you can remember that the old version of the VT home page on a mobile devices was exactly the same as the desktop site and they just made every thing smaller for suit the small screen. the new version is more user friendly, and the compose style is more readable we don’t have to zoom in for click a small button.
People can check the school announcement, academic programs and some new research etc. Overall, i think people can easily find what they need on the home page.

By: Katie Cox

Katie Cox — Thu, 08 Feb 2018 19:34:44 +0000

I do like their recently upgraded page–it’s a great improvement.

About scholarships, I am easily able to find descriptions of the various FST scholarships available, but I can’t find anywhere to apply for them or information regarding deadlines. Finding the faculty wasn’t difficult, but I definitely think that Linda Granata’s information should be much more accessible, seeing as how she is the head of the department.

Another gripe I have with this website is finding information regarding the FST minor. If I look at undergraduate information and those options, no where does it even mention that a minor is offered. As someone who is pursuing that path, having information and links to resources (like checksheets) would be very helpful.

By: Kimberly

Kimberly — Thu, 08 Feb 2018 18:48:46 +0000

The university website that I visited was the Myers-Lawson School of Construction website (http://www.mlsoc.vt.edu). Upon review of the information on the front page I realized that the comic’s Venn diagram almost directly reflects the information found here. There is a slideshow that contains links to articles about recent alumni, expansion of the school’s facilities, and discussion of industry ideologies that are studied in the curriculum. Along with this slideshow there is a list of upcoming events, a list of news and from around the school, and of course a link for donations to the program.

One of the more frustrating features about this website is the fact that there is no clear link to a page for prospective and current students. In order to get to the page with this information I had to go through several links and pages with the hope that I would end up at a page with this information.

Ultimately, as long as the right links are clicked on the right pages, you can find any information that you might need as a current or prospective student. I definitely believe that this page could be better built to make information easier to find.

By: Nathan Hogye

Nathan Hogye — Thu, 08 Feb 2018 02:44:51 +0000

The university website I visited was the home page for Civil and Environmental Engineering (http://www.cee.vt.edu/).
The webpage has a slideshow displaying the achievements of members and alumni of the Civil Department. Further down the page it has links to articles about department highlights and news. It also has links to the homepages of the various branches in Civil Engineering.

I think that people visit the webpage to learn more about the Civil Department and the different branches in Civil Engineering. The webpage would provide information for prospective high school students as well as current Virginia Tech students trying to decide on their major. People would also visit the site to find information on civil advisors, descriptions of civil courses, and civil checksheets for graduation.

I think that the webpage does provide all the information that people would go there looking for. However it showcases news and articles on department achievements instead of providing easy access to the information most people visit the site looking for. Overall, I think that it is important to acknowledge the accomplishments of the department and the webpage does provide links to a lot of relevant information so it does a good job of meeting the needs of its audience.