RISD



= RISD - rhode island school of design [Benchmark Analysis] =



Visual treatment and Design:

 * Composition: The index page is organized in an interesting grid with clean uncrowded columns, great hierarchy, and seemingly easy navigation. All the administrative and student resources are at hand yet the main focus seems to be on marketing the school and indulging the new user, and these two purposes are balanced in the composition.
 * Slant element: The visual slant separating the top banners with the bottom information columns provides a great division and sense of balance! This solves the static look often found in long horizontal layouts and leads the eye right back into the content and page.
 * Type and style sheet: risd uses a sans-serif typeface to match the grid and contemporary appearance. Verdana is preferred, but the CSS also loads Helvetica and Arial as second choices.
 * C olour pallet : there doesn't seem to be an official school colour. The head banner, navigation and the navigation rollovers rotate between a variety of hues on every page load. Not a fan of the puke-green but the other two choices are very vibrant.




 * Unfortunately the index layout and grid only continues to uniformly run throughout the museum's pages. Continuity is broken, to what seems like their old site, when following through to any of the other links in the navigation. Furthermore, the 'undergraduates' as well as the 'graduates' sites use entirely different grids themselves. Is this what happens when different designers are assigned to different sections of a website? A headache in any attempt of continuity.

Below is the top four layouts found throughout the site: (This doesn't include the two official blogs, the risd stores, login pages and various other interactive pop-up pages that also use entirely different layouts.)

Individually, however, the graduate and undergraduate sites look great, as well as seem to maintain their own continuity within their departments. For example, the undergraduate degrees offered at risd are all showcased in the same manner and grid, displaying program descriptions, requirements, academic information and student work in a very user friendly layout aimed at perspective students. These are the 'official' school profile pages and remain uniform, when interestingly enough many of these programs also have independent websites of their own.



The "old site", on the other hand, that most links eventually lead to, although having the most basic layout known to web, cannot maintain it's simple banner hight and thus breaks the sites continuity once again.



**Content:** The content engulfs everything regarding the risd school from the administration and degree information, applications, and examples of student work to an alumni section, donations and even a museum! It is pretty impressive that all this information is so coherently laid out and organized, while continuing to be inviting and extremely user friendly. **
 * 


 * Prospective students for undergraduate and graduate: Content for prospective students looking to explore the degrees offered at risd are listed under the two sister sites mentioned above, coined the "undergraduate viewbook" and the "graduate viewbook".
 * Extra Programs : Information on continuing education programs, summer programs, travel programs and certificate programs are provided using the 'old' layout.
 * Testimonials and videos: Risd has a great video collection of student and staff testimonials, studio work, tours, various opening receptions, awards, interviews, events, ext... Each video is very well produced, and filmed either by experienced staff on scene or in a professional light studio.


 * Department websites: Although each degree is profiled on the school website, links to each departments independent website are provided in a logical list. From the 12 sites given however, only 3 actually work.
 * Interactive map: A very impressive interactive map showcasing not only risd's and Brown's facilities, but also whats offered in the surrounding area, such as the local mall is available for viewing and even interaction. When looking for the computer labs, for example, the corresponding buildings flash to show their locations. This really helps in locating the campus buildings but also where the university stands in its immediate urban area and the rest of the city.


 * Slide show/picture galleries : Showcasing pictures of public and campus events in and around the facilities, aimed at prospective students and parents.
 * Blogs : risd offers two updated blogs which is a great way to stay tuned to the events and news happening within the school, divided as an 'admissions blog' and the other as a 'news blog'.


 * ====== The infamous nature lab: "The Edna W. Lawrence Nature Lab is a unique resource that offers the opportunity to examine, explore and understand the patterns, structures and interactions of design in nature." This is an interesting addition to the website because they are showcasing something unique to their campus and marketing it online, not entirely academic.======


 * Log in areas : risd has several secured areas where students need to log in, much like 'passport york', yet instead of having the log-in integrated into the websites layout, the user is sent to a separate blank log-in page... at least the log-in interface is creative and colourful.
 * Twitter : Many schools now have twitter accounts, as well as a Facebook profile and RSS feeds. This may seem unnecessary to those developing the website yet the younger generation attending these schools is very in-tune with new trends and technologies, and could even heavily depend on these new services.




 * The university store vs selling student works/designs : Like every corporate establishment, risd has a store selling its branded memorabilia. The school however also has a 'student work' store, where designs and products developed by the students could be purchased. This seems like a great way for students to get recognized, make extra money, and a way for the school to showcase its talents.



Below is the risd site map. Note that the 4th 'degree programs' section continues to run down twice as long, containing the most content.



**Information Architecture** :


 * Throughout the whole website the information architecture is pretty well thought of and generally intuitive, which is very unfortunate since this is not reflected by the physical continuity and logic of the websites countless conflicting layouts. **

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The information seems to be very organized and logically presented under each respectful heading. Despite the mentioned continuity problems, everything is structured for user ease with intuitive navigation that's easy to access around most pages. Videos have their own section, the interactive map features the area information, the blogs deal with news and events, and each programs site features the degree information very strategically to promote the school and market it's programs.======

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The index pages navigation and it's hierarchy are structured rather intuitively, and successfully direct each user, whether it be prospective students, parents, alumni or those looking for the museum, to their respectful sections quickly. Based on the links available on the index page, aside from the news feed, it appears that current students are not considered priority users for the risd website. This makes me wonder where enrolled students log in, or which url they probably navigate to, for quick course information, academic services, gpa calculators, and the likes.======

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Upon further examination, it's also interesting to note that risd places high emphasis on "giving to risd". Aside from the "give" link at the top right of the main page, and the "give to risd" option in the main navigation, links to the donations page are also available within the alumni and parents drop downs.======



Following through any of the links in this navigation menu, aside from the museum, however, leads the user to the more common navigation bar used within the site. This menu has hardly any visual hierarchy between headings/subheadings, as well as uses a rather illegible point size.

Overall the material seems to be organized into somewhat coherently placed sections within the navigation options, making the information about the school pretty easy to browse if the user is looking for something basic. Yet a discrepancy occurs in the "alumni" section which makes me question the entire logistics of the website and it's COUNTLESS layouts.

For example:
Accessing the Alumni section brings the user from the main index page to this layout:



Clicking the 'calendar' option jumps the user to another new layout, with what seems like similar features yet a thicker banner with no photograph image, as well as no sign of the original navigation, making the jump quite linear.



Selecting the 'calendar' option in the new navigation bar brings the confused user back to what was probably intended as the original calendar page. Not only did finding this final link took unnecessary steps but the user had to also navigate through three entirely different layouts and menus!



Hence the information architecture does not lead to overall good usability. Problems arise when trying to find calendars, and navigating to what seems like important links (login pages) isn't as ease as it should be. The site works well for a casual browser and perhaps a curious parent, yet does not facilitate quick task completion.

Looking for the design programs application form and requirements:
 * Task Completion Test:**
 * 1) index page: degrees --> undergrad --> graphic design --> gd.risd.edu
 * 2) gd.risd.edu index page: programs --> apply --> back to risd admissions page
 * 3) admissions page: apply/freshman --> requirements and link to application form in PDF

In terms of accessibility, each layout, although not in unity with the rest, is fairly user friendly and the information is accessible. The pages load quickly and provide the sufficient links to navigate around all the material. Some of the site becomes very linear, such as accessing the blog and loosing the navigation bar, making usability more complicated and unwanted.

Overall, compared to many other school websites, risd brings across a great attitude - they took the time and effort to design a great visual aide to their institution. Each page is inviting and very promotional in terms of selling the school to prospective student and visitors. If YorkU had to blatantly copy a benchmark website, the risd interface would be a great candidate. The layout is somewhat organized, generally logical, and provides all of its information without content overkill. Too bad they couldn't agree on continuity.

Resources:

Museum - [| http://www.risdmuseum.org/]
Blogs - http://welcome.risd.edu/ news blog - http://our.risd.edu/