Blog 4: Defining Your Website's Objectives

In order to help students decide on a major, many colleges and universities create pages on their websites with details about the different majors that they offer. Also, in order to increase enrollment in their specific departments, many department leaders create web pages through their universities and colleges with information about their department in an attempt to persuade students to join their departments. While many of these web pages are quite effective, many are not. An example of an effective web page compared to an ineffective web page is the biology web page for Carlton University compared to the biology web page for the University of Delaware.
The biology web page for Carlton University is a very effective web page. It is persuasive and interesting; includes informative, helpful, and interesting content; and is easy to use. This web page gives a lot of informative and interesting information about the biology program at Carlton University, including information about the program’s faculty members, students, facilities, class sizes, and opportunities for involvement on campus. The web page also gives information about the types of career opportunities that a person can pursue with a degree in biology. The content is written and presented in a way that is easy to read and understand. The content is divided up into sections of interest with subtitles for quick reading, browsing, or skimming. Also, the text for each of these sections is short and concise but informative. The text makes majoring in biology seem fun and interesting by discussing the flexibility and variety of topics that biology covers. It makes it clear that no matter what one’s scientific interest is there is a topic in the biology major that covers that topic. Furthermore, the web page has a bright and attractive header and pictures. In order to make the page even more effective,
I would suggest adding links for more information concerning career opportunities and opportunities for involvement on campus and getting rid of some of the empty gray space that surrounds the page.
On the contrary, the biology web page for the University of Delaware is not very effective. While the web page does a good job of presenting a lot of information and links regarding career opportunities available to those holding a biology degree, the web page does not give any information on the opportunities for involvement available on campus or any information about the biology program on campus. Also, while the design/layout of the content is easy to follow, there is nothing to attract or keep the readers’ attentions. The page has absolutely no color or pictures and there is an expansive amount of white space. While the text is well divided up into titled sections for easy and quick viewing, the text does not really say much of anything at all or give any real information. This web page could have more color and pictures, less white space, and more information about the actual biology program at the university.
When creating a web page for recruiting students to join a major, it is the web creator’s job to spark the interest of prospective students in biology by persuading them of the benefits of majoring in biology. People who visit such web pages are students entering college or already in college who are still undecided about a major. In order to effectively recruit students to major in biology, I would create a web page that is fun, informative, persuasive, easy to use, and interesting. When researching a major, students try to answer the following questions:
1. Is the field of study interesting?
2. What type of job can I get with a degree in this area?
3. What opportunities will this major present to me while still in college?
4. Is this a popular field of study?
5. What topics will I be studying under this major?
When looking for answers to these questions, most students will seek answers on the internet from university and college websites and from other students who are already in the major in which they are interested. When searching for these answers, most students will skim read web pages¾looking for key terms and subtitles related to their questions. With this in mind, I would use bold subtitles and write in concise statements with bullets when creating such a web page. Students want to be able to find the information for which they are looking quickly, and subtitles and information in the form of concise bullets makes finding specific information easier. For those readers that may be skeptical about the accuracy of the information on my page or that may want more information, I would include links for more information. It is the web page creator’s job to make sure the readers feel informed and not skeptical. Most of the readers that visit a web page for recruiting students to join a major will probably have little or no information about that major. Therefore, it is safe to say that these readers’ knowledge and understanding of terms related to these majors is limited. Thereby, information on the web page should be written in such a way that the common person can understand.
In order to spark the interest of readers as they are searching through thousands of related web pages, I would use a page layout and font that is easy to follow and read but also try to be creative and incorporate some color to the page. These techniques will increase the usability and persuasiveness of the page by making the information seem more accurate and professionally constructed. When creating my web page, I would include the following information: a general overview of what biology is and topics that it encompasses, job opportunities, opportunities for involvement in college (research, study abroad, etc.), and reasons that biology is a “cool” subject to study.
When creating a web page recruiting students to join a major, one’s writing can be limited by bias. A web creator recruiting for a particular major will write from his or her perspective, which is biased toward his or her individual interests. In other words, a person who creates a site promoting biology will probably write in such a way that makes biology seem interesting to others who may already be predisposed to like science. After examining the web pages discussed above, I learned to be concise but informative in my writing of the text to put on my web page. I also learned to be as creative as possible and avoid having excessive white space on my web page.

http://www.udel.edu/CSC/bio.html

http://www2.carleton.ca/biology/prospective-students/undergraduate/why-study-biology-at-carleton/