Pages

Tuesday 21 June 2011

New front page progress

Since putting up a post about We need a new front page and getting lots of useful comments, Matt and I are much closer to the finished article now. There's a screen shot below - the main changes have been:
  • getting rid of the three themes above the images which looked like they should relate to the images below but didn't (thanks Steve)
  • added space for an additional 'featured' image (thanks Marta), which we'll change every week
  • changed 'what's hot' to 'featured' (thanks James)
  • reduced the size of the 'follow' links (thanks Jonny)
  • also added some explanatory text underneath each of the three audiences (this is draft - would be interested in opinions)

Need to decide on the portlets to the right now. Are there any other changes we need to make at this stage?

14 comments:

  1. Hi Stu,

    Looks great. Really engaging and colourful too.

    I If I was being picky, I'd possibly say the 'About Us' bit looks a bit dated, given the rest of it is so new and shiny. The Plone "information" bit just looks a bit out of place to me.

    Text wise, I think the Students and Alumni buit is fine, apart from I'd say 'your' career, not 'a' career.
    Employer text great, I'm not sure about the word 'bright' but I don't know what I'd replace it with.
    Staff text - not sure again. Feels a bit wordy. The two 'how' words together don't quite work I don't think. But again, I'm not sure what I would replace it with. Let me have a think!

    Looks great, can't wait until its live!

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  2. Thanks for this, Stu.

    I agree with the flavour of the descriptions for each, and only suggest minor amendments:

    For Students - 'develop your career (consistent with succeed in your studies) - however, I realise some objection has been raised to 'develop your career' as it might thought that it implies students already have one?

    For Employers - '...find out how we can help you reach them/make contact with them' or something along those lines

    For staff - 'We work closely with academic colleagues to support them in supporting their students..." or some such. Sorry I'm not being very decisive today. I'm tired!

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  3. Just changed students and employers. I think we need to work more on the staff one

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  4. Looks really good :-) For staff wording, maybe something along the lines of 'Ensure your students attain/reach/achieve (?) their potential - find out how we can help and who to contact' ?

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  5. Hi Stu,

    For students - fine as it is (with the recent changes incorporated)

    For employers - given employers also recruit volunteers, interns, part-time workers, etc, should we include 'students' into the mix as well? ''Bright graduates 'and students' with real world skills......

    For staff - we're using 'how' and 'support / supporting' twice in close succession. What about "We can help you support your students - find out how we can assist and who to contact" or "Helping you to support your students - find out how we can assist and who to contact"

    Cheers,
    RW

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  6. I like the fresh look of it and colours.

    As Vic above, I'm also not feeling 'About Us' with the new design, it doesn't fit very well. You might use such information in portlets for easy access through many pages, or then appropriate it to the design.

    Plenty of comments have been made re: text, feels like 'employers' and 'staff' could definitely be improved. Maybe that's being picky but avoid using 'how we can help' in both of these.

    Looking forward to seeing further progress.

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  7. Excellent. V helpful - thank you :)

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  8. Hi Stu,
    Page looks great, I am am looking forward to the pages that sit behind and these being reordered for easier access.

    It will be good to make site have a similar look, that is cleaner.

    Is the 'Students and Alumini' to draw in recent graduates to use our services?

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  9. That's the plan - I'll put up a draft of the students and alumni pages when Matt and I have thought about it - hopefully in next week or so.

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  10. Aimee Harrisonwild28 June 2011 at 16:09

    Sorry ...coming to this a bit late as catching up on emails... looks great. Echo all that has been said about employers.

    Thinking like a student, on the front page it might be worth having a headline tag: 'looking for a job or placement' (link to the page with ALL the vacancies on). I know they can get to this page via the portal but some may not enter, as having found the careers page by mistake so this might just hook a few extra in.

    cheers Stu.

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  11. We'll make that a prominent portlet - thanks for the comment

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  12. [...] blogged a few weeks ago about the progress on our front pages revamp for www.le.ac.uk/careers and I’m pleased to say that we’ve now completed the main [...]

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