CMC.edu EDU Checkup Scores

• Visual: 86
• Information: 68
• Code: 60
• Overall: 71% (214/300)
• Grade: C-

He presents his comments in full in the video below, and pointing out a number of problems and making recommendations. His main points of criticism seem, however, like easy fixes:

“Please, please add a title to your page… People just don’t know who you are.” — To see this for yourself, go to the page yourself and look at the top bar of your browser. It won’t say “CMC.edu, Still Below Average «  The Forum” like this page does. It’ll read something like “Mozilla Firefox”. For now, it’s literally a page without a name. This is a simple html fix, which shouldn’t take more than a minute to add, but should help us in both search results and in social networks. (UPDATE: This fix was so easy that now the title has been added. Good start, CMC; now let’s add keywords and a description, so the Google results don’t just pull the text from the last news story.)

Axe the PDFs — DeNardis points out that all the valuable information for majors — the course, the requirements, etc — are in the catalog which must be downloaded as a PDF and opened to view. That information should be available online, if for no other reason than it saves us all 3 or 4 clicks. It would take all of 5 minutes per major to copy + paste the text, but it’ll make the site much more user-friendly.

Don’t truncate the headlines — What if, just after election day, the New York Times homepage only read “Obama W…”? You’d be pissed, and rightly so. Of course, the problem with the trimmed headlines on CMC’s homepage isn’t nearly as serious (see the “In the News” tab), but it’s a silly setting, which only annoys visitors. For example, can you tell what this title is talking about? “Political contributions question part…” Didn’t think so.

Two other issues bother me about the new homepage: unclear organization and just plain bad writing. Why are some stories in the left column and not in the “Features” tab? It’s not clear where you should look first for recent news, nor is it clear that you should expect new content in either of those two locations. This ambiguity then forces you to focus on the big rotating images, which would be fine if all your saw were the large, high quality pictures, but then there are the words… “A Living, Learning Community,” which seems best suited for a retirement home, “The Liberal Arts, Enlarging Perspectives,” which for us just isn’t really true, and the worst, “Leadership Starts Here,” which at once conjures up images of Discovery Zone and means that we share a slogan with LeaderTonic.com:

From Leadertonic:
What is Leadertonic?
- An elixir that when generously applied increases leadership strength.
- To be imbibed over ice for cool leaderfreshment.
- The state induced by over exposure to Jeff’s (the author’s)voice … as in “Doctor, he’s gone leadertonic!”
- The pearls Jeff has collected over 45 years and shares with you each week.
Answer: All 4!

Leadership Starts Here is dedicated to the reality that you, regardless of title, position or role, can lead change in the world around you to the degree you exercise your Passion, tune your Integrity and extend your Influence.

So at this point, I’m not sure what’s worse: that it’s hard for people to find us or what they think when they do. Nonetheless, here’s to hoping that the next steps in the website redesign process address the cosmetic, structural, and messaging problems.

When I was a wee high school junior in the streets of Manhattan, I would come home from school, take off my snow boots, and look for colleges in warmer climates via the web.

Everything I read about Claremont McKenna sounded amazing to me– “Happiest Students,” “Most Politically Active Students,” “Best Classroom Experience,” “Best Quality of Life.”

I also read a hilarious, stereotype-enforcing “Unofficial Guide to CMC” on the website-formerly-known-as ClaremontMcKenna.com, which left quite the impression on my 16-year-old, wannabe Warren Buffet-Mike Bloomberg self.  (To this day, the archive.org copies of cmcstudents.com has some worthwhile stuff on it.)

Then there was ClaremontMcKenna.edu.

ClaremontMcKenna.edu was pretty bad.   It was composed of mismatched colors and awkwardly placed student portraits, and I couldn’t find the information I needed.  To this day, I don’t understand why “admission” and “prospective students” are different sections of the site (and now “CMCNation.com” makes it even more confusing).   Granted, the old version of the site might have been better than the current “puke-on-puke yellow” color scheme, but peer institutions’ websites looked far better to students who lived 3,000 miles away.  There weren’t even pictures of the campus beyond thumbnail-sized shots of parking lots and buildings that looked like they were taken by a freshman with a polaroid camera and a scanner.

But I digress.

The point isn’t that ClaremontMcKenna.edu sucked then, it’s that it continues to be awful when compared to our peer institutions’ or even Pitzer’s websites.  And it’s getting comparatively worse.  Compare the ClaremontMcKenna.edu of six years ago to today’s CMC.edu and tell me you see change beyond the move to the “puke-on-puke yellow” color scheme.   Sure, a couple years ago CMC brought in some people to make the flashy “Life@CMC” application, but that doesn’t excuse the rest of the website.

Needless to say, our website is vital for marketing to prospective students.  Still, admitted student questionnaries show the website is not actually a huge factor for most HS students who ultimately apply to CMC, but some have berated it in the survey anyway.  But many of those students would have applied to CMC regardless, as many of them have some human or geographic connection to CMC (which is stronger than any website).  It’s the people we never learn about— those who are turned off by the website and decide not to apply, that we are losing.  Especially East Coasters like myself with no connection to anything or anyone Claremont.

And it’s not hard to fix— it just costs a little money that would go a long way.

1. Keep the ITS department away from web design. They are understaffed, overworked, and not specially trained in or focused on web design.  They can code the backend, but they aren’t designers.  I can’t see a bigger disaster than letting ITS redesign the site themselves— it will be difficult to undo or disregard if it does not turn out well. Clarification 7/17/09: ITS has no role in the design of the CMC.edu website– that is solely Public Affairs’ responsibility.

2. Stop wasting money. A couple years back some students and administrators met with web consultants who wound up making dumb recommendations that the college never took.  It was a waste of thousands of dollars because the school had no idea what we needed and when it comes to professional web design, neither do most students.  And while student input should not be disregarded, the website is not really for current students— it’s for prospective students, alumni, parents, and anyone else who wants to learn more about the College.

3. Hire an outside firm to see the process through from start to finish. White Whale Web Services, an Oakland-based design firm that is responsible for Berkeley Law’s, Haverford College’s, Duke University’s, and Kenyon’s College’s website, specializes in web design for higher education institutions.  I e-mailed Jason Pontius, President of White Whale, who shared some of the costs behind a website redesign:

“Costs for a higher ed web site are of course flexible, and depend on lots of variables (how many sites are to be designed, whether information architecture consulting is part of the project, whether we come to campus for extensive community research, etc.).  In our case, we tend to be hired more for the level of service we provide (immersive, collaborative, community-focused) than for the price tag.  As a general ballpark figure, I’d say our .edu projects start at around $20K (strategy, consulting, small design projects, writing, etc.) and top out at around $150-200K (for deep, immersive, full-service redesigns over 9-12 months— we only take on a couple of these per year).”

4. Account for web design as a depreciable asset. To cover the $150-200K, it would be much easier to set aside $40-50K a year, allowing constant innovation and upkeep.  Trying to shell out $200k every four years is difficult and dependent on market forces, endowment returns, etc.

5. Do it now. After years of stagnation, Evie Lazzarino left CMC as VP of Public Affairs.  In February, the College hired Richard Rodner, who held the same position at UCLA, to fill the post. Mr. Rodner now has the opportunity to make right by CMC.edu, and it’s an opportunity he cannot afford to waste.

It’s pretty simple— find the money, hire professionals, and get it done.  Then keep it up to date with innovation and contemporary practices.

Ryal Poppa ‘57 (last name pronounced “Poppy”), has offered to pay for the new lab. According to a CMC Alumni Association Newsletter, “Ryal Poppa ’57 surprised fellow alumni, faculty, and staff during reunion weekend when he announced his pledge of $250,000 to help create a new computer lab.”

“He was at alumni weekend chatting with some students who mentioned that there wasn’t enough lab space. He wanted to do something about that, so he decided to give funding for a lab,” says Dr. Cynthia Humes, Chief Technology Officer.

Dr. Humes estimates the new lab to cost roughly $200,000 ($70k construction, $50k wiring and electric, $60k for networking, workstations and equipment, and $20k furniture).

The lab’s layout and design was organized by Micheal Malsed, Assistant Director for Student Technology Services, Candace Adelberg ’10, Nico Ratazzi ’09, and a group of ASCMC Senators. No outside firm was retained in the design or construction of the lab—everything is in-house.

The main purpose of the lab is to reduce overcrowding of the other labs and to provide a convenient place for students to do work. According to Mr. Malsed, the design of the lab is also intended to provide lots of individual space. “Let’s also make it a place where you can get a lot of people around a computer to do group work,” said Malsed.

CMC’s Central Facilities Department will begin demolition of the apartment on the north side of Phillips when students move out this May. The apartment, which currently houses students, was approved for demolition by the Dean of Students’ office and Committee on Academic Computing in anticipation of the new dorm’s opening this fall. Fid Castro, Assistant Dean of Students, worked with students and the Committee to find a space for the lab. Other options for the lab’s location included the new dorm and Bauer South, but Phillips was chosen for its location and availability of space.

The lab will measure 53′ by 16′ on the inside, with extra patio space outside the lab for wireless access. The lab, which is not yet named, is expected to be completed this fall.

According to the design, the lab will be accessible through the outside only, so Phillips residents will have to go around the building to get in. This is because Phillips, unlike Stark Hall, is not substance-free, and because it would be cost-prohibitive to tear down a bearing wall to build a door. The layout of the lab also makes room for a special room for RTAs to work on hardware and software issues, in addition to the possibility of other uses.

In addition to the new lab in Phillips, the Kravis Center (the West Campus Project where Pitzer Hall and the Admission Office now stand), will include a larger computer lab when it is built. That lab, which is not expected to be completed until at least 2009, will include laptop-friendly couches and floor-to-ceiling glass windows.