Presenting a model for the structure and content of a university World Wide Web site

Abstract

This paper proposes a model for the structure and content of a university World Wide Web site, by a process of:

(1) identifying who the site is serving and the information needs of these individuals or groups;

(2) identifying institutional information needs;

(3) relating this data to the content provided;

(4) presenting the content in a manner suited to the characteristics and information needs of the target user groups.

Through an analysis of existing UK higher education institution (HEI) Web sites and an extensive literature review, a case is made for a non-static approach to Web design which identifies users and makes extensive use of themes to promote currently relevant information at the top level. The authors propose a link-rich environment which does not rely on user categorisation and exploration of long sequences of links and is not constrained by traditional boundaries between departments. The authors contend that such an approach is yet to be adopted in UK HEIs, but is beginning to occur at HEIs in the USA.

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