Jim Green
Academic Computing and Network Services
Chair, MSU Web Team
Christina Tower
University Relations
July 19, 2006


Review the current situation and recent developments

Gather information from stakeholders and interested parties

Begin a dialog process toward determining the best course of action

Decide on the next steps


MSU Web Team

Joint UR/LC&T team
 oversees www.msu.edu
 content, design, and infrastructure
 with direction from upper management
 advises and assists departments with their web initiatives
 facilitate web design that will fit in with official MSU web sites


2003 www.msu.edu redesign project:


“graduate portal” as a follow-on project
“prospective students” is top target audience
 information architecture – findability – is the top design priority

2006 www.msu.edu redesign

2006 admissions.msu.edu redesign

2006-2007 search.msu.edu redesign

May 15 meeting with Janet and Les





 find program information



 degrees majors/minors fields/areas of study interdisciplinary programs apply online
 special program/dept. procedures find research and teaching opportunites
 assistantships learn about and apply for financial aid find information about the MSU and EL communities

 multiple “front doors” -- institutional


 grad.msu.edu (Graduate School) admissions.msu.edu/beaspartan.com (Admissions) www.vprgs.msu.edu (VP for Research and Graduate Studies)

 www.msu.edu/future/index.html (MSU’s main web site)
 http://csp.msu.edu/pages/explore/grdintro.cfm (Career Services &
Placement)
 and at the college level www.ns.msu.edu/pstudents/index.php (College of Nat. Sci.)


 http://www.cal.msu.edu/portals/ProspectiveStudents.htm (Arts & Letters) http://cas.msu.edu/prospectivestudents.php (CAS) http://web4.canr.msu.edu/canrhome/display_page.asp?topic=Graduate&the me=Prospective%20Students&pagename=Department%20Links (College of
Ag.)


Multiple lists of programs/majors

Registrar Academic Programs and Descriptions of Courses

Admissions – majors list

MSU web site academic programs list

Graduate School colleges and programs list


Decentralization presents problems for users

Information overlaps and gaps

Programs, degrees, majors, minors, fields of study

Multiple places to look for information
 Never sure you’ve seen all that’s available

Lack of uniformity in how information is arranged

Need to search/browse across all sources of info
 searchers vs. browsers

PDF format is a barrier


Cornell
 no keyword search, but drop-down combined with tabbed info display are fairly effective

Minnesota

A to Z majors – searchable
 multiple lists and catalogs

Ohio State

Separate programs and fields of study lists
 Programs – searchable; Fields of Study is A to Z only


Do nothing

Minor adjustments to existing resources

Further investigation
 meetings, brainstorming
 focus groups, usability studies

Smaller, targeted projects


 programs/fields database/search
“Be a Spartan” for grads?
…
 Larger graduate resources web design project
 where would this fit?


Jim Green, Coordinator, Academic Systems

Academic Computing and Network Svcs.
 jfgreen@msu.edu

432-7239

PowerPoint and handout: http://www.msu.edu/~jfgreen/presentations