Yale reinvents her online image

KUSHAL DAVE/YH

Most Yale students, faculty and staff should be familiar with the "old books" graphic—the static image that websurfers see when they call up www.yale.edu. That and the more colorful YaleInfo page make up the stalwart centerpieces of Yale's image on the Web. But now they may finally give way to new, more interactive pages that show off more of the campus and present more information to prospective students.

At present, Yale's front page seems flat, passive, and uninformative when compared to those of other prestigious schools. Princeton's website has a clean, modern design, and contains "current announcements"—short news blurbs that are posted weekly. Harvard's site also has a streamlined look that also contains updated news items and has numerous links that lead not to another "index" page, but immediately to the resources themselves. Yale, by contrast, rarely updates its front page with new information, and a user usually has to go through the front page, the YaleInfo page, and possibly a few more "index" pages before coming to the desired resource.

Many students and faculty have sent feedback to the administration about these, and other, shortcomings of the website. In response, the University Secretary, Linda Lorimer, LAW '77, commissioned a report, to be completed during the Fall 1998 semester, on Yale's website, how it compares to other university websites, and what improvements might be made. David D'Addio, DC '99, who was taking the fall semester off to work in the Office of Public Affairs, put together that report, compiling data on Yale's page in comparison to other university web pages. D'Addio also talked to webmasters from other schools to find out what is involved in giving a college website a complete overhaul, and maintaining the new online image. D'Addio's first, and perhaps most telling finding, was that Yale's page has remained static as many other colleges have gone through a series of redesigns. "In general. Web pages age very quickly," D'Addio said. "The books [graphics] were innovative at one time, but [meanwhile] other universities have made significant changes."

Just so long as the buildings aren't as ugly as the books...

D'Addio, as a part of his research, spent a lot of time surfing the web, looking at those universities that had made "significant changes" to their websites, or incorporated innovative features. In his search, he found that there were several areas that Yale's website did not address, such as showing off the campus. Colleges like Princeton, Brown, and Columbia have prominent, central images of the campus on the front page. On every page in Princeton's website, a picture of some part of the campus appears on the top left corner, randomly selected from a pool of photographs. Cornell even mounted a camera that overlooks the central campus—and the live feed can be accessed off the main site. Though D'Addio did not suggest such extreme measures, he did mention that there was a lot of opportunity to showcase Yale to visitors via the website. "Yale has beautiful campus, and there's not a single campus photo [on the front page]," D'Addio said.

"The books [graphics] were innovative at one time, but [meanwhile] other universities have made significant changes." -David D'Addio, DC '99

In addition to the lack of campus photos, D'Addio suggested that Yale use the site to show prospective students and faculty—whom D'Addio feels should be the target audience for the site—the relationship between Yale and the city and incorporate more interactive elements into the site—such as the new online applications recently launched on the Yale Undergraduate Admissions website. "The [new] website should do a better job of serving prospective students and faculty," D'Addio said.

Yes, we're all individuals

John Gambell, the University Printer, has been placed in charge of the redesign of the website after D'Addio presented his report last semester. However, the scope of Gambell's project is limited—he will only be working on the front page and the YaleInfo page.

Gambell pointed out some of the same issues that D'Addio reported, including a lack of campus photos, a non-interactive presentation, and a failure on the part of the website to be more representative of Yale. Gambell also pointed out the lack of consistency in the present web design. "There is no sense that you are in the same universe...once you move on [from the front page]," Gambell said. "Another consideration is that that the work has to be distinctive...iconographically and typographically."

To address these and other problems with Yale's two main webpages, Gambell intends to fix the discontinuity between the front page and the completely different look of the "YaleInfo" page. Since Gambell's project only covers these two pages, this consistency will not necessarily expand to the rest of the content on www.yale.edu. However, Gambell will provide templates for new Yale groups that want to bring their pages "into the graphic sphere" of the rest of the site.

Secondly, creating that "iconographically" distinctive look will be accomplished mainly through the images and text that Gambell intends to incorporate into the site. In addition, Gambell hopes to incorporate new technology, such as Java applets and advances in graphics.

During this current semester, and into the future, Gambell will explore "a range of possibilities," in this undertaking. However, as of yet, "no formal choices," have been made about the new design. There may be small, incremental changes made to the website as part of a process that Gambell calls a "triage" for the website. Throughout the whole process, Gambell intends to focus on the target audience of prospective students looking for admissions information and trying to get a feel for Yale University.

What about us?

Gambell's project, because of its narrow focus, may not have much of an effect of current students—except, perhaps, in lessened embarrassment when directing our friends to the Yale website. Yale still conspicuously lacks an Intranet—a set of websites that are internal to the university and provide readily accessible information to students. Intranets are a common feature in most university and company websites, and they provide a valuable resource for students looking for quick information—like class schedules and phone numbers—without having to go through the hierarchy of the main college site. Havard is currently working on a project with a student organization known as the Harvard Computing Society to establish an Intranet portal, a starting point for their students. It will provide access to email, Harvard news, everything a typical Cantab could want—short of an application to transfer here.

Still, Gambell's project should be the first step on the road to recovery, providing a welcome change that may make visiting the www.yale.edu a more informative, interactive, and pleasurable experience.

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