Tuesday, August 28, 2001

New TCU Web site receives mixed reviews
By Eric Elton
skiff staff

Maegan Deller, a sophomore education major, sat down at her computer to check her schedule the day before classes began only to find a redesigned TCU home page.
After the initial surprise, she proceeded to search the page, taking twice as long to locate the TCU Frognet link.

“Before, the page was much less complicated and I could find what I was looking for on the site,” Deller said. “Now the layout appears to be too cluttered and not nearly as user friendly as its predecessor.”

Victor Neil, director of new media, said many factors were considered during the process of revamping the new $10,000 home page. Research was done to make sure the new TCU Web site would satisfy the needs of the entire TCU community.

Neal said the main audience was current students.

“One major thing we did was look at the e-mails we get on a regular basis, and we also (considered) the calls transferred to us from the help desk,” Neil said. “The complaints we received were mainly from people who couldn’t find certain site maps.

e made decisions based on that knowledge for the changes, and mainly brought more content to the front of the page.”

Neil said the new site uses numerous pull-down menus which allow the user to take advantage of copious amounts of information on the site.

Even though changes were made with the TCU community in mind, some students feel the changes are geared more toward prospective students.

“The parts pertaining to incoming students are easily accessible, whereas the parts composed for current students are hard to find,” said Casey Nettles, a sophomore environmental science major.

Nettles said the information on the home page seems to be fashioned in a way that is not user-friendly.

“I think it is a nice change but it’s a little hard to navigate with such a jumbled scheme,” Nettles said. “I definitely prefer what they had before this newer site was posted.”

While it will take some students time to adapt to the structure of the new TCU home page, others are already beginning to appreciate the alterations.

“I think the new site is easy to use and very accessible,” said Jonathan Murphy, a sophomore theatre major. “I can find enrollment information along with e-mail addresses and other general information from the first start up page rather than having to search for it.”

Ben Alexander, director of admissions marketing, said the new site is an improvement as it provides more information to the users at the first page to make information quickly accessible.

“(The new site) gets more news and events out there for users to see,” Alexander said. “I definitely think it is improvement and will become even better with the voice of its users. Any comments from people that are using it will bring more improvement to it in the future.”

Eric Elton
e.e.elton@student.tcu.edu