Elaine - I noticed this strange phenomenon when I was comparing courses offered by the Teaching Company with courses made available by university websites. The only thing I came up with at the time was the profit motive to make sites more usable. Doing the work to make a website like that of The Teaching Company more usable has a significant impact on the company's bottom line. Not so with educational institutions, since their bread and butter comes from elsewhere.

What do you think?

I am just about to present to an organization of university/college development professionals, and have found the same thing with regard to the alumni sections of those sites. Talk about a wasted opportunity/tool for keeping connections alive and growing more longtime contributors! Sure, some of the 60+ year old alum may not be online-interested, but pretty much everyone else (I generalize a tad) has become a dedicated online researcher and connector. Give alum what they are used to on corporate or retail sites - good nav, functionality and community, if they want it. I know a well-done web site will be one of my key suggestions to the group. Thanks for writing about this!

Cam, I agree that Web sites help market products and services, which inevitably contribute to the bottom line. However, it seems that some universities now have revenue generation expectations from their departments. Government allocations can't keep up with the growing student population (Baby Boomer kids), and there's a lot of competition in the university foundation fundraising market.

Many universities are in growth mode, expanding programs, constructing new residences and teaching facilities or renovating tired, old buildings. That takes a lot of money from all market segments. So, in the end, the Web site is a major portal to acquisition of these targets. That comes pretty close to the equivalent of the bottom line.

That makes sense, and I agree, but I'm not certain the universities see it that way.

From what I've read, many of the administrators and professors running these universities still look at the Web and its tools with abject snobbery that can only be acquired through years and years of traditional education and countless sessions of self-important groupthink.

I suspect, also, that even if that weren't a problem, the sites would suffer from Design By Committee, where no one will admit their lack of expertise in user-centered design to allow those who are versed in that discipline to do an effective job.

I hope that is the exception rather than the rule, but if it is, then those who embrace the Web's tools within academia need to lead the way.

The University website seems to be a world unto itself. I agree you need a GPS to get through it - maybe that's how they decide who gets admitted - anyone who can get in gets in.

We list university courses on our website of seminars and we have a heck of a time trying to update the information. Every time we ask for an update of their public seminars we get met with electronic blank stares. Seems most universities use students to keep their information current and as the students rotate so does the information. Ever hear of keeping notes - guess not - I'm sure there's a wizard for that.

Cam, you're right. Universities don't appear to see it that way, I agree, otherwise there'd be better Web sites out there.

The challenge that universities face is similar to health care facilities, other educational institutions, and nonprofits. They are often lead or managed by people who came from those professions or disciplines. And that's where the focus tends to be. These leaders are not usually business or marketing whizzes, and as such, need to bring in top-notch business and marketing experts at the senior levels to help move them forward.

I completely agree with you that most (not all) University Web sites are hard to navigate. I can never find the exact information I need, not even on my own University's Web site. It is very frustrating.

Now that I think about it... I was at Steve Krug's usability workshop about a year ago in Austin. There were several universities represented, so maybe they're getting the picture.

The problems they faced included design by committee and homepage fishing that you'd expect from people who think their program is the most important.

That's so typical, Cam, isn't it? When internal staff aren't given the 411 on the overall brand, there's going to be internal power struggles for attention and space. If they could strategize (yes, that dirty old word) to see where the best bang for their buck comes from, or what their priorities are, they could design sites much better.

Interesting that Stanford was ranked among the worst... At Yale, the School of Art has turned its website into a wiki:

http://endlessinnovation.typepad.com/endless_innovation/2007/05/the_yale_wiki.html