Survey Results: Prospectives

If you come to a university website with a specific search in mind, what are the most likely places you'd like to go?

"About" the University; Academics (general information, list of majors); Academic Departments (specific major); Admission; Application Information; Athletics; Calendar of Events; Campus Life (dining, residential life, etc); Directions; Faculty Bios; Images of Campus; News Stories; Request Information; Student Activities/Groups; Student Bios; Videos/Multimedia/Podcasts/Blogs; Virtual Tour

When visiting a university website for the first time are you more likely to:

Find information through the site's menus/navigation system; Use the search box to find specific information; Go directly to a page using an outside search engine like google.com; Just browse the website to get a feel for the school

What would you like to see on a university homepage?

News Headlines; Events; Links to Images/Videos; Links to Community Blog Posts/Tweets/etc

Do you tend to use sitemaps when available on university sites?

Yes; No

Which would you prefer?

Yes; No

We have listed 6 types of imagery for the homepage. Rank them in order of your preference (1 = most preferred; 6 = least preferred):

Students engaged in extracurricular activities : e.g.: baseball game, performance of play or opera, etc.; Students engaged in academic activities e.g.: painting in a studio, studying in library, etc.; Photograph with intrigue e.g.: artistic image, interesting imagery, etc.; Photos of faculty e.g.: teaching students in labs/classrooms, leading field trips, etc.; Campus snapshots e.g.: buildings, grounds, etc.; Photograph from recent events e.g.: commencement, guest lecturers, etc.;

Which of the following websites/technologies do you use regularly?

Blogs (write/maintain your own); Blogs (subscribe to others); del.icio.us; Digg; Facebook; Instant Messaging (AIM, iChat, Google Chat); iTunes; iTunes U; LinkedIn; MySpace; Mobile phone to browse web; StumbleUpon; Texting (phone); Twitter; YouTube; YouTube EDU

How often would you expect the images on the homepage of a university to change?

Slideshow; On reload; Daily; A few times a week; Weekly

How often would you expect the written content on the homepage of a university to change?

Multiple times a day; Daily; A few times a week; Weekly

In general on the web, do you focus more on:

Written content; Multimedia content (images/video); Content generally, as long as it's interesting