[lorend]

From the MSU Blog

Hello all!

So my sincere thanks for everyone who took their time to fill out the Website Survey; the feedback thus far has been invaluable. I have spent the past few days working on an overview for the Website Renovations Project outlining the areas for change, goals of the project and proposed critical path. This is being edited and revised by the members involved in the Website Renovations Project (our SLDC coordinator and Network Administrator) so that we can set out a clear timeline to ensure the project is completed by the end of summer. With projects such as the website, there are bound to be unforeseeable obstacles so we are attempting to be as proactive as possible with our planning and scheduling.


I have summarized the feedback from the Website Survey below. There were a lot of common themes which were really helpful in establishing what exactly within the website needs improvement.

An interesting comment was raised about whether the process can be done transparently and let students see the changes and provide feedback during the process (ex. Wikipedia) rather than just work on changes from the backend and then reveal the new website all that once. Unfortunately, that would have substantial costs and really slow down the process. However, what I am committed to doing is having regular surveys to collect feedback on various aspects of the site renovations ( like my new survey about the classifieds system, MacsList), using my blog posts as a way to provide regular updates and gathering as much feedback in every stage of the process as possible.


Without further ado, here are the results from the survey:


NUMBER OF RESPONSES: 180
1. How often do you visit the MSU website?

• Daily 14%
• Weekly 29%
• Every Couple of Months 41%
• Never 15%

2. Do you work and/or volunteer for the MSU?

• YES 51%
• NO 49%

3. In general, what information are you looking for when you visit the MSU website?

• Homepage/news 56%
• Services and Businesses 53%
• Contact List 38%
• Clubs 54%
• Jobs/Volunteer 58%
• Student Government (SRA/EB/FYC) 38%
• Board of Directors 13%
• Events Calendar 48%
• MSU Blog 14%
• Bylaws and Operating Policies 17%
• Other 3%

4. What would make you visit the website more often?

• Pictures and News from events 67%
• Frequently updated Businesses+Services pages 46%
• Online forums 24%
• A McMaster-specific classified list 59%
• Information about the local community 47%
• Information about the campus 68%
• Website re-design 42%
• Other 3%

What do you like/dislike about the MSU website, and other suggestions (general themes):

• Site is unattractive and not intuitive. Information is difficult to find and often out-of-date.
• Desire to see it integrated with MacInsiders or with mobile phone
• Desire to see it follow a simple format such as the WordPress blog format
• Needs to be more interactive
• Not enough pictures, media
• Too cluttered, flashy, too much text
• Too plain, boring
• Many dead links
• Inadequate clubs system, lack of information regarding clubs
• Lack of consistency between sections
• Lots of people don’t use it/aren’t aware of its many features especially the blogs and Board of Directors section
• Desire for the process to be transparent
• Include important dates in calendar ex. When OSAP is due, varsity games, make calendar the comprehensive calendar for all things going on on campus

Likes: the Twitter feed, the amount of information available, the colour scheme


If you have additional comments or queries, please e-mail me at [email protected] r.ca


Yours,
Mary