Finally a better link structure to get to the most used student administration links.

And the important dates, like add/drop deadlines, used to be near impossible to find.

there should be links for

1.Webmail
2.Carmen
3.Course Registration/Scheduling/Grades
4. Tuition/financial Aid
5. Faculty/student contact info
6. Career Services

that are centrally located.

The site should make current students and their immediate interests a priority.

Although all the OHIO related features are great, the new website should still be more utility based instead of showing based. The major problem I observed is around finding all the links related to Buckeye Link: the schedules, financial aids, carmen, registration, etc. They are all there in the "popular links", but buried in all other links. With most students accessing them more frequently than, let's say, "activities," would it be better to make a area dedicated to these acedemic related links? Just a Suggestion.

I like the new website, especially how it does not have the empty space on the left as it did before! But, I do not like how it is so....pale and light. I would like to see darker, bolder blues, red, and maybe darken the gray to help distinguish the different categories.

The old website is SO much better looking. Make pull down tabs when you mouse over future students, etc..

if it isn't broke, don't fix it.

I personally have gotten used to the way the website is set up now. I mean it could be updated but i dont think that the entire layout should be changed. The site is very easy to navigate right now, so osu doesnt need to complicate things.

The new frontpage is way too busy and hard to find information! I currently work in higher education and have looked at many other colleges and universities websites and must must say that OSU's old website was extremely easy to use compared to other institutions. I don't think the new changes are needed.

Way too confusing... cluttered. Stick to the old layout.

I think it is great. I've wondered why it has taken so long for the website to get updated. The new look is much better, and appears easier to navigate. My only suggestion would be to make the Ohio State logo more prominent, or the lead story less prominent.

Nice work!

Its wayyy too complicated. And I don't like the whole popular links bit, makes it seem a little amateurish.

The style is nice, but it is lacking clear and simple organization. It seems like there is an attempt to cram far to much information on the home page.

Since I got here in 2004, I was always wondering when you would clean up the website. Then you go and make it even MORE cluttered and less user-friendly. I'll admit that I like the tabs at the top. Tabs are always easier than text links, but they should be highlighted, or have a different background color when you are on a particular page.

Remember, it's not important to have every piece of information in the world on the front page. The layout is two thin (only about 650-700px, I'm assuming) for 4 columns. In the "Most Popular Links" section, the oversized text is nice, but can be confusing.

Seems too busy to me. Not sure it is exactly what I would call user friendly

The new site does not look as professional as the old site. It looks like a page from a kids website.

I agree that it's too cluttered. Someone suggested making some of the links/tabs bolder; I think this might help a lot when looking for the frequently used links. *Personally, I liked the old website just fine, for what it's worth.*

Poorly organized and much, much too cluttered. Cramming too much on the home page. (Case in point: "Giving" should be a pull down menu option, not a big huge box on the main page!) Also agree that this is not a blog, and the popular links/tag cloud looks silly & unprofessional. Such a thing is completely unnecessary if your site is well-organized in the first place.

Make current students & the things they need (ie Buckeye Link) more of a focus. And please do something about all that white space! Blocks of actual color go a long way towards visual organization.

Overall, not an improvement over the previous (current) version, which looks fine and has been very easy to use.

This site does not look simple. Menus should be all in one place as on the old page. I could see people in other parts of Ohio Having trouble with slower internet speeds

Its cluttered, with just spatters of links everywhere, making it impossible to find what you need. On top of that, its ugly. We have such a great school, why can't we present that online? The only good part is that the O-H-I-O section is a nice way to showcase the buckeyes.

A simple axiom from elementary school: K.I.S.S. Keep it simply simple.

I mostly echo the sentiments here. The old webpage definitely needed some work, but this current version of the "new" website just doesn't function well.

PROS:
-Those tabs at the top will be GREAT once the drop-down menus are added.
-No more random blank space in the left margin! Hooray!
-Each individual element looks better and cleaner.

CONS:
-Clutter! Oh the inhumanity! What ever happened to keeping things simple and easy to read?
-That "most popular" has got to go. I can see how it seems like a great idea, but it simply cannot stay. It looks FAR too amateurish. If it is kept, it must be made to look much more user-friendly and uniform.
-So much text! The bottom half of the page bleeds text.
-No particular need to make the feature stories so crazy huge. It's not adding much to website.

My favorite college website:
http://mit.edu/

Text-y? Yes. I wish they had drop-downs. But look how CLEAN, ORGANIZED, EASY-TO-NAVIGATE, and above all, SIMPLE it is! And heck, it even keeps a rather large feature story area.

The Ohio State University is a giant school with a massive endowment. The website is absolutely revolting, perhaps the most hideous website for any college ever. Whoever is in charge of the website, please take note of the simple and obvious solution: HIRE A WEB DESIGN COMPANY!

can you say cluttered? what an awful design, so hard to navigate and find what you need.........the old site is just way better than this new one.

I think this new one looks like a cheap website. I didn't really look at all the material so I'm not sure about the actual content, but I do think it looks very poorly done, like something a much more "lacking" university would put up. I think it's the tabs, the font, the overall presentation, etc. I do also love the one we have now, so I don't know why we need to change it.

I've been going to school here two years now and I've finally really got down the buttons on the OSU webpage. I can even do it blindfolded. I'm pretty sad that it's changing :(

The new site is MUCH improved. I have often thought the current site looks less than attractive and very unfinished. 'Where is the rest of it?' was what I always wondered. The new site looks fresh and modern - love it. Great use of space, lots to navigate, clean layout, tremendously improved font selection. I will echo many others' sentiments that I, too, would like to see more scarlet on the homepage, but overall, very nicely done.

The "Most Popular Links" section is not clean and neat like the links on the bottom of the page.

Compared to the old website, this new osu.edu is awful. It was very easy to find what you were looking for on the webstie and it looked professional. Now, it looks cluttered with way too many words and completely unprofessional. Most other college websites that I have visited look better than this new one. The old one was better, but needed updated, not renovated.

Recently I completed research on web usability, interface design, information architecture (etc) of a OSU affiliated website I designed. In the process I conducted multiple usability tests, which are an extremely important aspect that I recommend the developers/designers of the new OSU site conduct.

In the study, some students directly referenced the “old” OSU site very positively...overall the “old” site is an example of a great site for a university student audience while the “new” site has incorporated some of the faults that need to be avoided for good usability...this is also very clear from the comments above.

I do like the new additions, however feel the changes to the site layout do not need to be so vivid. Follow the same “old” site structure (or similar) and just give it a facelift here and there (i.e. in graphic, CSS, etc).

Simplicity is essential.

====
PS: I am willing (& qualified) to help in usability, design, and development if assistance is needed.

i like the old one better...maybe it's just because i'm so used to it.

I feel that it is not colorful enough, and it doesn't give that "WOW" factor when you look at the site, whether for returning or most importantly new students. Also, a main page should be concise, brief and straightforward. Scrolling is too much for a main page of a Web site.

IF IT AINT BROKE DON'T FIX IT

Find better ways to pay people... I mean honestly

Interesting idea...this comment thing. I love a distraction right before finals.

The multi-sized text links are interesting, but not user friendly. My eyes have to refocus on every different link...ouch!

It's rather 2D. I'd like to see more depth to it.

I have this feeling that whoever is doing much of the design is also spending alot of time on facebook.

I dont like it at all. The current website is fine, its fun, its eye catching and its different. The preview I saw was very disappointing. There was no spark...no color, nothing to focus on, not even any rollover color difference with the links. You could at least change the main link pages when rolled over to red, something. I think the way the new webpage is set up should be put to a vote or at least use the feedback youre getting to make it better.
Just keep it the way it currently is, please!!!

The current website is simple yet powerful - highlights everything at one glance. The new website is good but too complicated. Personally, I wouldn't keep searching through it. I would rather use google to search what i want if the new website were to replace the current one. A good effort though.

Go Bucks!

The usability SUCKS. Just playing with it for five minutes and I could already tell there was just way too much text. I had to squint just to find the words Office of Student Financial Aid. I think the current site can be improved upon, but this one is most certainly going in the wrong direction. I genuinely hope that you will consider not using this new one and continue to investigate and find other ways to improve. Many people have said it was way to cluttered and I definitely agree, a website is meant to be quick and dirty, at this rate it would be easier for me to call up finacial aid and wait for 20 minutes to talk to someone instead of having to hunt around the site to try and find what I am looking for.

DON'T DO IT!

I have to say that this new site is not a vast improvement over the old one but I think it definitely has some good qualities.

Honestly,it could use more scarlet and gray but come on, is that really what the most important feature should be?

The links are just as easy as before and the most popular links will really help when a lot of people are trying to get to the same information. When students are looking for dates to register or drop classes, that will really easy searching time. And when you all want to know about the new tuition dependent change, it will be right there.

Whenever you change something, people inevitably dread the change. I think the old site was good, but obviously there were some problems that needed fixing. Just get over the fact that it is changing and acclimate yourselves to the new format. It's younger and fresher, and it's happening no matter what.

'Old is gold' or so they say!!
Seriously, the new site would be more appropriate for an entertainment news channel or a page 3 magazine! The current site is simple yet powerful and extremely easy to navigate within. Keep the current one!
Maybe this new one can be used to teach web design students how not to design a website for a university!!!

My only bit of suggestion is that the find-people search 1/2 way down the page be moved up. If you go to this site multiple times a day to search for email addresses, it's nice to not have to click around so much.

also your captcha challenge field is really a pain in the butt - I'm fine with having to verify that I'm not a spam-bot, but I've had to go through this four times now and it keeps coming up as "not correct." Maybe it shouldn't be SO hard to read.

Nope five times.

wayyy too much going on and hardly any color but white. kinda sad but i think some student organizations, take the buckeye bbq qlub for example (www.osubbq.com), have better sites than this.

you had the option of keeping the "old" and you gave that up in favor of something that highlights the problems with the "old" and gives us nothing beneficial.

why?!

although we know it has to be part advertising for students considering OSU, at least give us a quick link into a "current student" page that's user-friendly and free of clutter!

stop trying so hard to be cutting-edge that you cause us to need years of practice to navigate the website... just in time for you to change it again.

This is exactly what I thought. I did not know blue was one of the colors of our school! I know blue is a favorite color among most people...soothing, etc, but it is also one of the colors of the "school up north." While it is alright that our school is evoking a sense of patriotism with a red, white, and blue theme, it just does not seem very Ohio State/academic to me. I would think that the blue could easily be substitued with a nice shade of gray. And where is the red other than just a few solid blocks? There is just way too much white going on with what seems to be an attempt to hide the white with a massive amount of links to sort through. There should be search button for just the main pages! (At least the search button (might) be quicker than reading through all the subcategories!) Many college websites I have looked through have a darker background to them. Both form and function are lacking. (However, I will be eternally grateful that the blank space on the right is gone!)

What happened to Wooster on your "around the state" graphic? With over 4000 acres of University property in the Wooster area, a two year technical college and the OARDC, I think Wooster has earned a spot on the map!

I almost completely hate this new one... it looks less user friendly...

Tabs are good. However, there should also be a tab for the OSU libraries. The libraries represent a significant foundation of the entire OSU experience.

this web layout is hideous...whats wrong with the current one?

I'd say it's pretty bad. All the important links are cluttered at the bottom and it really looks unprofessional. Simplify, simplify, simplify! Functionality over features!

The current website is so much better, this new one looks so unorganized! The one we have now is so easy to use, and in this case staying simple is the way to go! The complicated new layout won't be an improvement. It's way too cluttered and it's so difficult to find what you want! Not user friendly and way too busy. I respect the effort to provide a little change, but please reconsider this new design!

The new one looks overly energetic. Thus it needs more time to settle down. Anyways, I just want to say that it is not bad to be traditional. The old version of the OSU homepage is much more user-friendly. The new one is too flashy. The homepage was one of the reason I came to the OSU. Each link was shown neatly and the "layout" of the page did not lose me. I was focus all the time. I saw "stars" shinny after I looked at the page for 5 seconds.

the suggestion is:

Let's be classical ....

I think the new look is a good look just needs to have a more user friendly menu at the top, id like to see images of campus on the front page as well: they give the user a more welcoming and warm feeling, also would really give a great opening impression of the school through osu.edu

well, under the quick links section, academics should definitely not be put into the smallest print. after all, isn't this the institution that is aiming to move up in the eyes of the academic world? we're not going to do that if people think academics are a side-note here. that's a bad move. it should definitely be one of the biggest, or else just make those links in all the same-size font.

The new website does not look professional. Finding information was some times a challenge, but this new site does not that correct it. The design appears less organized and potential more confusing than the past site. My first suggestion would be to lose the "Most Popular Links." Then, I would than suggest that a more stuctured website which resembles some structure of the old site.

Thank You

don't change it if you have no problems with the old format. The new one looks more complex, distracts the attention of reader; why people want to change things all the time?

I don't like it! Although the headings are the same it is easier to navigate the current home page.

The newly designed website is visually unappealing and lacks functionality. The huge graphic in the middle is wasted space. The important links are small and blue; they then change to black which is difficult to distinguish. There should be more scarlet and gray and less blue.

There was no need to scroll on the old page. Everything was right there and easy to find. Now you have to scroll down and you can't see the whole page at once. The different sized links are hard on the eyes. There is also a lot of duplication between the links across the top and the "Most Popular Links" portions. Just have them across the top. There is no need to have three links to Current Students on one page. Please do not change the website!

I think the idea behind the new site is great, as is the interfacing system. While the old site was user-friendly, student resources were unconsolidated, making it difficult to find what you were looking for (Buckeyelink, Carmen, BuckID, etc. not linked). I like the fact that the new site attempts to counter this. However, this site lacks Ohio State appeal, a necessary element in a new system. It is boring to look at and read through, and the coloring scheme is safe and the font choice is mundane. If the site wishes to take Ohio State into the future as a world-class university, it should be prepared to make a statement in that direction. This website makes no such attempt.

There are definitely some major imporvements with the new site. My two favorites are probably the uses of tabs in combination with drop down menus as well as the use of the entire screen rather than leaving that ridiculous white space to the right hand side of the screen.

However, there are many thigns that I do not like about this design.

1) To much info on the homepage. Sometimes more is siad with less. I view a homepage as a navigation page and not as a content holding page. So in my mind, the less you put on the homepage, the more effective it is as long the links are clear and accurate

2) The website needs more color especially scarlet. If the tabs are colored in Scarlet and the border made Scarlet instead of gray, it make the website look more polished.

3) I wish that there could be a fully-integrated University Calendar that takes the dates from all of the different academic, university event, studetn org, etc calendars and dumps one main calendar. The main calendar should be a featured link on the homepage. I always had a hard time looking for various dates through the old odu.edu site.

Just a few thoughts.

New one is to busy, and it does not show up correctly in my browser window. I much prefere the current one. It is familiar. When upgrading the website it is very important to keep the familiarity the same so people can still navigate the site. It can look different but the buttons should be in similar places.