Sheridan+College

=** Sheridan College **= []

This is the website for the Sheridan College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning. The people who would use this includes current Sheridan students, students planning to apply for a program offered at Sheridan and maybe even teachers and administration people in order to update the information on courses, events, etc. There is also a section for people looking for job opportunities at Sheridan.
 * What it is and who would use it **

This website has a global navigation that includes the pages About Sheridan, Admissions, Programs & Courses, Services, Alumni, and News and Events. Another repeated navigation is at the bottom where there are links for the different kinds of people who might be visiting the site. These links are mostly different labels for the global navigation, taking you either to the main page of one of the global navigation links or a page within that section. For example, clicking on Future Students will lead you to the Programs & Courses tab and clicking on Immigrants and Newcomers will lead you to the Immigrants and Newcomers section under the Programs & Courses tab. A consistent banner is at the top of the site and also holds 3 buttons for Explore, Tour and Apply. Different side menus show up when you enter separate sections. There is also text at the top of the content area indicating the nested structure of the page you have visiting.
 * Information architecture **

The visual design is clean but doesn’t look too business-like. The darker gradient background really helps with that. A splash of colour is given through the top banners that change on different pages and the blue/green headings for the type. I generally associate darker backgrounds with more artsy and photography websites where the dark background draws attention to artwork so this works in their favour. However, the repeating(?) gradient at the back is a bit weird since it chops up the site vertically in an unnecessary way. The layout of the site is centered allowing for the background to fill in extra space on bigger monitors. It also uses the typical menu, banner, content layout of many websites making it a familiar navigation system for users. The page for searching courses gives off quite a different feel, giving you the indication that this databse is pulled from somewhere else. Most noticeable is the change from a sans serif to a serif typeface. On top of that, any search results will pop up in a new window.
 * Visual design **

This site is quite user friendly. I found the admissions page to be particularly well organized. The admission process is just that, a process. Therefore having the side menu go in order (like instructions or steps) that could help prospective students explore then apply for the program they want is quite helpful. Any description of programs includes an apply button, emphasizing and making it easier for future students to continue on in their university/college selection.
 * Usability **

Content is grouped by location and type of person visiting the site (employers, job seekers, faculty, etc.) for the About Sheridan page, by steps for the Admissions page and type of program (full-time, second career, professional training, etc.) for the Programs & Courses section, etc. Though there aren’t as many pictures – it is quite bare in that area except for the different banners on each page – the text wasn’t too overbearing and long when put under headings and often in point form. The A-Z index of programs is also helpful if you already know what you are looking for.
 * Content **

The Sheridan website may not have many pictures or student works, even in the pages related to visual arts, but the top banners are carefully crafted to give the user a sense of what the page will be about. The information was particularly well organized with many ways of getting through the pages depending on what kind of user you are; whether you directly go to future students from the navigation on the bottom or if you want to browse through the programs by area of interest by yourself.
 * Synthesis **

All images are from the Sheridan website.
 * Cited works **