Web Redesign Project

Comment Themes

While varied and interesting, the comments focused on only one theme: Many items should appear in more than one category. In the card sort instructions, participants were told to “Think of where you would look first to find these items on a website.” By forcing participants to choose only one category for each item, our data becomes more meaningful. At the same time, it becomes more frustrating for the participants.

Half (15 out of 30) of the comments shared one theme:
  • Many items should appear in more than one category (15)
Next in popularity were:
  • Multimedia should appear where appropriate (not on a separate multimedia page) (3)
  • have various home pages by group (students, faculty, parents) and by subject (admission, academics, administration) (3)
  • change Admission to Admission & Financial Aid (2)
  • delete Especially for Visitors (links can go under About Williams or other) (2)
  • delete Especially for Faculty, Staff and Students (2)
Other comments (1 each):
  • delete from homepage

    • Communications
    • Conference Office
    • Publicity
    • Social Links
  • add to homepage

    • PeopleSoft and Glow
    • Student Life
    • Dining Menus
    • WCMA
    • policies (honor code)
    • services (OIT)
    • WSO
    • Health Center
    • Human Resources
    • International
    • Tools (internal links)
    • Athletics
  • add to other

    • add Human Resources to Administration
    • add Campus Safety to Administration
    • add Facilities to Administration
    • add Dining to Administration
  • rename

    • Students to Campus Life & Community
    • Administration to Administration and Services (staff info goes here)
  • use sub-nav

    • Giving to Williams should be small on homepage
    • Search, Employment, Social Links should be small on homepage
  • yes and no

    • separate Especially for Faculty & Staff into two categories
    • combine Faculty and Staff into one category
    • too many calendars; use one and put staff-only stuff in DM
    • need more calendars for more specific things (ie, freshman events: orientation, parents weekend)
  • and more

    • combine News & Events
    • Search Williams should be at top level
    • Webmail should be at top level
    • better search
    • better organization (by page content instead of reporting chain)
    • I Am Williams quotes give wrong message
    • incorporate multimedia into homepage in a strong visual way
    • keep Especially for pages

Next: Using WebSort