Against

By Kevin Kidwell, Online Editor

Have you ever had trouble while browsing West Liberty’s website?  A lot of people say they have, and here are a few of the major complaints.

The site index is difficult to find, hiding along the top, and what happens when you’re trying to locate the Bookstore or the list of majors and minors offered? Some things are nearly impossible to find if you don’t know where to look, and even then it takes a multitude of clicks to get to where you want to be.

A website, especially that of a University, should be easy to navigate, especially when prospective students and their families need to find important places quickly.

I can never seem to locate what I’m looking for the first time on West Liberty’s website. As I mentioned before, the site index itself is difficult find, and having small text to show where it is doesn’t help. When I first looked at the site, I didn’t even see the index. I had to rely on the search bar at the bottom of the page, which gave me some of what I was looking for, but not a list of exactly what I wanted. Even though the search option is there, it’s inconsistent and is often a pain when I try to decipher the results.

You would think, being a University and probably having a lot of interest in acquiring future students, would put things like the degrees they offer in plain view.  Going to Academics, I found a list of the different Colleges, but clicking on the areas under the sections takes us to a whole new looking website that I have to search around on if I want to find the degrees for just that section. To find all of the degrees, I had to click on the index, and then Registrar’s Office, followed by the University Catalogue in the menu on the right side. Even then I could only see them by the College of study they’re in.

This is a horrible way to have to get around a website, especially one targeted at an audience that is used to finding things quickly and without much hassle. West Liberty’s website is a mess with navigation, not only with finding things, but also with having links in various parts that lead to places that are still being created. Some serious renovation is needed for this website to work at full capacity, without adding more stress for a college student trying to find a few simple things that shouldn’t be hard to locate at all.

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