Design for college website

adeydas

Hi,
We are re-designing our college website and it would be great if you could provide some inputs. We are focusing on making a CMS based site created from scratch. The present site is here.

Thanks in advance.

AOP Web Development

Hi dude, i might help you, if you like i can design your website. I will ask for a single of penny. All i need is to add this website as our portfolio. and link at this website.

If you are interested just pm me bro.

SamiTheBerber

You should take some opinion from the site of my university: http://www.cs.helsinki.fi/index.en.html

The site should look very professional, but still have some look.

GB

I agree with Sami, take a look at other university websites to get a feel for what they look like. Right now, I don't see a lot of information to draw me in. There are a ton of photos of your buildings, but only one has any people in it, and they almost seem like they were just in the photo and the photographer didn't see them. It might be good, then to rethink your site's imagery. What images would convey what your university does?

The answer to that question can inform your design decisions in the rest of the site.

In addition, your text should be rewritten. Much of it is written in the vernacular, rather than in a more refined tone. The website also isn't very current. I found one reference causing me to believe the last time the website was updated was sometime in 2004-2005 (on the "Why GIET" page: Highest placement record. 2001 batch-65.8%, 2002 batch-64.6%, 2003 batch-72.4%, 2004 batch-83%, 2005 batch -Target 90% ). So make your entire site current and keep it updated. For a university like yours, I would think it should be updated every month at the very least.

Good luck with the redesign, and since you are doing a redesign, A List Apart has a good article for you: Good Designers Redesign, Great Designers Realign.

loryl

Here's the school of engineering website from my university: http://www.engr.uiuc.edu/

Your site should definitely look professional. I think it'd be worth it to pay more for a well done job since your website will be the first thing most people see about your department. My major's department hired professionals to get the job done, but since you're in engineering, you could probably do it yourselves...

Just some advice from a nonengineering major:

Use divs instead of tables to design the layout of your site. Tables are for displaying data.

Fill in the missing alt tags for the links to the left ("home" "about us" "why GIET?" etc), or better yet, convert those links to text. This is so that search engines, blind people, or anything that can't see pictures the way we do can better access your site.

Fill in alt tags for all images. This is so that in the case that users can't see your image for whatever reason, they'll still have an inkling of what the image was supposed to be.

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Create a search box so that users are better able to navigate through your site. The search box was the most used function on our school's main site (and yes, they did a poll for this).

Pictures: the buildings are cool, but you could also put some up of students/professors/people doing daily things -- this way people are able to get a glimpse of what everyday life is like at the Institute. Think: closeups.

The block images on the right ("gandhi campus flash" "welcome to decennial ceremony" etc) should be removed... the color and style clashes with the rest of the site.

Make the "apply here"/"prospective students" link clearer. People should NOT be confused about this one.

More info/links, less pictures. Make things look... busier.

Current events, calendar. Please don't put marquees, though...

swapnilsarwe

Hey adeydas,

Many of previous replies suggest to take a look at other university sites and thats what even i have to suggest. and actually even i was working on some concept wherein i wanted to make site for college students. wherein students will have their own space and would like to write and discuss whatever they feel like.
basically it was like by the students for the students of the students. If it is that way please have your own feel to it rather than having some references of other universities.
Also have a look at some opensource CMSs available online. There might be chance that you might get something which is exactly what you are looking for with all your requirements fulfilled. and you might save some good amount of time.