SMC Website redesign Competitive Analysis Conducted by Olivia Axelsson
Welcome message from author
This document is posted to help you gain knowledge. Please leave a comment to let me know what you think about it! Share it to your friends and learn new things together.
Transcript
S M CWebsite redesign
Competitive Analysis
Conducted by
Olivia Axelsson
Competitive analysisConducted by Olivia Axelsson 2
IntroductionThis competitive analysis was conducted as a part of the process for redesigning Santa Monica College’s website. Four competitors websites have been compared to Santa Monica College’s to get a better understanding of what to enhance in order to make a successful redesign. The results have been analyzed and this report will cover the gathered data.
SummaryI’ve analyzed five different college and university websites in this report, including Santa Monica College’s. From what I’ve found, the most successful websites of the ones I’ve compared is the ones that manage to hold a large amount of information in an effective way. Another conclusion I’ve made is that the two sites that are university websites are the most successful ones in every aspect. Both UCLA’s and UNL’s websites have a beautiful design and a well thought out and effective interface. Both
these sites are also responsive, which is a very important feature for websites today, since a huge part of the visits actually origins from mobile devices.
Three of the sites I’ve compared have arranged their navigation by user type, which means that there is one section for students, one for prospective students, one for teachers and so on. In this way, I believe users will find it easier to navigate to the information they’re searching for, and would recommend Santa Monica College to use this approach in their navigation system.
When comparing the visual design of the different sites, Santa Monica College’s website, alongside with the other community college websites, is not very appealing. When browsing through the other sites that actually have worked on their appearance, it’s clear that that has a huge impact on visitors feel for the school. A new visual design will be one of the main goals when redesigning Santa Monica College’s website, along with rearranging the navigation and making the site responsive.
Competitive analysisConducted by Olivia Axelsson 3
FEATURES SMC UNL SBCC BCC UCLA
Search Function
Responsive Website
Faculty Contact Info
Calendar
Social Media
Contact Info
Alumni Page
Front Page Slideshow
News
Donations
Navigation by user type
Student Log In
Campus Map
TOTAL 10 13 10 9 13
Features Comparison
Competitive analysisConducted by Olivia Axelsson 4
Effectivness rating
Overall Experience:
Functionality:
Look and Feel:
Santa Monica College
OverviewThis website serves it purpose but not much more than that. On the home page there is an overwhelming amount of links and the navigation is confusing and sometimes redundant. The visual design makes you wish for more and it is not always easy to find what you are looking for. A couple of
good things about this site are the search function and the social media connections. Also, the home page slideshow is a good feature. Overall it would need some work to be more successful.
Competitive analysisConducted by Olivia Axelsson 5
Effectivness rating
Overall Experience:
Functionality:
Look and Feel:
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
OverviewThis is a very well executed website that gives a great first impression, whether you visit the site from a mobile device or not. The navigation is easy to understand and throughout the website the navigation continues to really make sense. Everything I tried to find on this site while researching it,
I could easily find. The only negative thing I could find about this site is that some pages in the site could have been more visually designed, but overall I find the visual design appealing.
Competitive analysisConducted by Olivia Axelsson 6
Effectivness rating
Overall Experience:
Functionality:
Look and Feel:
Santa Barbara City College
OverviewThis website is pretty easy to use and understand. The navigation is based on user type, which is less confusing for visitors. Also, the home page is not very cluttered and it is easy to get an overview of what the site has to offer. On the downside though, the visual design is not very good. The site
is not responsive on does not display well on mobile devices. I would even say it does not display very well on computer screens neither, since it is so short and small.
Competitive analysisConducted by Olivia Axelsson 7
Effectivness rating
Overall Experience:
Functionality:
Look and Feel:
Berkely City College
OverviewThe first impression of this website was how visually boring it looks. The colors used are so dull and there are hardly any real pictures on the site. Some things on the site were easy to find and some were not. The navigation could have been better organized. Sometimes I felt lost within the site and did not know
how to find my way back. The site does not display well on mobile devices and a lot of things in the site look rather unprofessional.
Competitive analysisConducted by Olivia Axelsson 8
Effectivness rating
Overall Experience:
Functionality:
Look and Feel:
University of California, LA
OverviewThis is a really successful website in many aspects. Firstly, it is responsive and displays well on mobile devices. Secondly, the navigation is easy to understand and well organized. Also, the creators of this site have done a great job with the visual design, and every single page is a pleasure to look
at. Every feature that I through my research have found great to have on a college or university site is present on this site. The only thing to complain about is that the two main navigation bars could confuse some visitors, but it is great that one of them features navigation by user type.
Related Documents
