Recently I was asked to join a committee at work regarding the creation of an intranet site. This was an idea that had been smoldering for a little while around campus, but came to the fore with the redesign of the main website. It’s an event I had seen before.
Previously it was a slightly older design with the page divided into sections as was the style at the time. The new redesign is now more in vogue with current aesthetics, with a large background picture and different parts scrolling in the foreground over top. It looks nice, it’s hip, it’s in-fashion, but it hasn’t proved all that functional for those of us already on campus.
This event begs the question: Exactly who is the target audience for educational institution’s main website? In times past, the root site was seen as a first stop for those on and off campus, whether they were affiliated or not with the institution. It contained information for prospective students, parents, alumni, and the like, but also had links for current members of the community to internal resources. It was one site to serve dual roles, but is that what it should be for?
With the rise of the Internet to something we all use and take for granted, the focus what a main website should be for has changed. The root website has now essentially been turned over to the Marketing Department as a recruiting tool. There may still be token links to internal resources and information, but the focus has now shifted sharply toward advertisement. I don’t think this is a bad thing, but it has left out a sizable population.
I can remember the days–and maybe where you are they still do this–where every lab computer had its web browser homepage set to the root university website. Everyone started their Internet adventure there. With the handing over of the site to Marketing this is now a superfluous gesture that only adds more steps between the user and Google. Hence the need for an intranet starting point.
Now comes the big question: What goes on an intranet portal?