Technology

The  Bluefield  State  College  is  a  leading  educational  institution  with  more  than hundred  years  of  history  that  ensures  availability  of  affordable  and  accessible  education  for  students  who  want  to  build  their  career  in  private  or  public  sectors as  well  as  continue  their  education  and  pursue  a  career  in  academics.  The  college is  proud  for  a  valuable  role  played  by  their  graduates  in  community  and  state,  at national  and  global  level.  Historically,  being  a  black  institution,  the  College prepares  graduates  for  the  future  by  providing  Bachelors  degree  programs  and giving  opportunities  for  distant  studying.  Among  the  variety  of  the  offered programs  are  engineering  technologies,  business,  teacher  education,  arts  and sciences,  nursing  and  health  science  professions  and  a  variety  of  other  career fields.

The  core  values  of  the  College  are  Excellence,  Community,  Diversity,  and  Growth.  These  values  are  maintained  in  order  to  build  a  long-term  competitive advantage  for  the  College  and  its  graduates.

Therefore,  the  College  website  is  developed  for  the  promotion  of  the  college  on the  Internet  as  well  as  providing  important  information  for  students,  faculty,  and alumni.  The  information,  links  and  resources  presented  on  the  website  as  well  as the  design  of  the  website,  thus,  can  be  analyzed  in  terms  of  their  contribution  into  meeting  these  objectives.  According  to  the  website  counter,  it  had  more  than 1.5  million  visitors  during  the  period  between  the  site  setup  date  and  March  19, 2010.  This  fact  confirms  the  statement  that  the  website  is  rather  popular  among the  audience.  However,  there  is  some  evidence  described  below,  reflecting  that  the functionality  of  the  website  can  be  much  higher.  According  to  Bader (n.d.),  website  functionality  is  directly  influenced  by  its  design,  so  the  College  website appearance  should  be  a  point  of  thorough  analysis  aimed  at  improving  its  content, organization,  and  performance.

Problem  Statement
A  very  important  feature  is  the  website  design  which  could  be  a  good  way  of targeting  specific  audience (Shelly,  Napier,  and  Rivers,  2009,  p. 1).  The  College website  has  a  large  amount  of  structured  materials  about  the  College,  study programs,  administrations,  admissions,  distance  education,  library  and  technology services  as  well  as  students,  news,  popular  links,  etc.  It  is  very  important  that  the website  provide  visitors  with  information  on  diverse  topics.  The  site  stimulates contacts  between  students  and  graduates  while  being  useful  for  many  outsiders.

Also,  it  should  be  noted  that  the  variety  of  presented  information  is  striking.  In addition  to  plain  texts,  there  are  many  report  files,  photos,  and  even  videos  as well  as  class  schedules  in  the  form  of  tables.  They  are  very  important  sources  of information  for  the  website  visitors.  However,  not  only  information  is  important, but  also  its  arrangement  and  presentation.  If  a  visitor  cannot  find  a  document,  the effect  is  the  same  as  in  the  case  when  the  document  does  not  exist.  According  to Lawrence  and  Tavakol  (2007,  p.6), poorly  designed  websites,  lacking  focus  and purposeful  design,  are  at  best  of  minimal  use  and  time  wasting  and  at  worst damaging  and  financially  corrosive.

There  are  more  than  15  major  links  on  the  main  webpage  of  the  College excluding  News    Events  and  Popular  Links.  The  corresponding  names  are  written  in  different  fonts,  sizes  and  colors.  Moreover,  they  jump  across  the  page  in  such  a  way  that  their  places  are  unpredictable.  A  user,  who  enters  the  website for  the  first  time  can  experience  problems  in  identifying  the  key  and  secondary information  which  is  usually  distracting.

Other  pages  also  present  confusing  link  arrangement.  For  example,  the  Distance Education  menu  item  leads  to  a  page  where  two  additional  menu  sequences appear  one  on  the  left  hand  side  and  the  other  on  the  top.  Those  who  are interested  in  contact  details  can  easily  go  to  the corresponding  link  leading  to  the contact  information,  campus  map,  and  Contact  Us  form.  A  better  way  to  organize the  information  is  to  place  a  Contact  Us  link  that  will  redirect  to  a  page  with  the relevant  functionality  and  information  such  as  the  College  address  and  campus map.  Another  inconvenience  arises  when  users  try  to  see  Meet  BSC  Video  from the  main  page.  It  is  painstakingly  inconvenient  that  the  video  files  have  to  be downloaded  to  be  watched  on  the  users  computer  with  the  help  of  a  video player.  The  more  efficient  and  convenient  way  is  to  embed  video  into  the webpage  andor  upload  it  to  YouTube  and  stream  the  file  from  there.

Lawrence  and  Tavakol (2007, p.8)  argued  that  a  website  design  should  be clear,  stimulate  appropriate  visual  perceptions,  be  usable,  have  effective  navigation and  manner  as  well  as  be  structured.  Thus,  the  implementation  of  the  project Redesigning  the  College  website  will  make  the  site  more  user-friendly  and  easier  to  read.  So,  it  will  inevitably  attract  more  potential  students  and  other visitors  who  want  to  get  interesting  information  about  the  College  and opportunities  emerging  from  studying  there.

Scope  Statement
The  successful  implementation  of  this  project  will  have  a  positive  impact  on  the viewers  of  the  website.  Common  busy  viewers  like  businessman,  executives,  etc., who  might  skip  some  important  information  on  the  website  in  a  hurry  and students  inexperienced  to  site  surfing,  will  be  the  potential  beneficiary  of  this project  as  improving  the  design  of  the  website  will  enable  them  to  access  the critical  information  with  much  ease  and  in  lesser  time.  So,  many  of  such  visitors are  expected  to  increase  after  the  implementation  of  this  project.  Processes  like streaming  of  videos,  opening  of  sub  links,  etc.  are  going  to  be  greatly  improved by  this  project.  For  example,  after  clicking  on  certain  links  there  is  no  link  back to  the  sites  home  page.  Such  processes  will  become  more  user  friendly  after  this project.  Also,  the  headings  like  popular  links  or  News    Events  which  make  the site  look  clumsy,  will  be  removed  and  added  in  some  other  form,  viz.,  in  the form  of  pop-ups.  Overall,  the  implementation  of  this  project  will  not  only  attract more  potential  customers  for  the  college  but  also  will  facilitate  the  access  of information  vital  to  a  viewers  decision  of  availing  the  facilities  of  the  college.
Analyzing  the  website

I  took  the  help  of  standard  website  analysis  techniques  (Bader   J.,  N.d.)  and  then  build  my own  methodology  to  analyze  the  website.  The  methodology  for  defining  and addressing  the  problem  was  to  identify  the  target  viewers  of  the  college  website, the  information  relevant  in  attracting  the  viewers  and  the  ease  of  access  of  such information  on  the  website.  So,  the  website  was  to  be  analyzed  by  comparison with  websites  with  similar  purpose  which  are  proven  to  be  very  popular  among their  target  viewers.  My  chosen  website  was  Harvard  Universitys  website,  where  I  mainly  compared  the  design  of  the  college  website  with  that  of  Harvards and  identified  important  design  issues  with  the  colleges  website.  I  thoroughly studied  the  colleges  website  and  identified  certain  key  problems  myself,  like  the clumsiness  of  the  website,  irregularity  in  the  font  size  of  similar  links  and  the inconvenient  delay  caused  due  to  the  downloading  of  the  videos  on  viewers computer  terminal.