[Closed] Website Usability feedback

the whole things pretty confusing most people woudl start here I'd guess;

[url= http://www1.uwe.ac.uk/ssh/education.aspx ]homepage[/url]

where the menu's not present but the links on the page replace it.

Once you get to them menu all the other options disappear when you click on one of the links - you shoudl just expand that link but keep the others.

the page designs seem to change quite a bit between sectiosn as well.

and if you follow a course link of [url= http://www1.uwe.ac.uk/ssh/education/undergraduatecourses.aspx ]this[/url] page there's no way back other than via your browser as the menu changes as well.

How do you get back to the upper menu when you have click on th wrong link?

Don't like the way the previous options just disappear like you are opening a new window each time.

Can't you have the lower menu options expand and close like folders in explorer. Click on the option and the suboptions are shown beneath, click on it again and they go away.

I am not a web wizard but that is my non-techie feedback

This is exactly the type of feedback i was expecting. I didn't design the navigation or come up with how it works. I'm merely trying to gauge how usable/access it is. This type of feedback is useful to get things reworked.

wwwaswas> what did you mean by

"where the menu's not present but the links on the page replace it."

To me the left hand navigation's not too bad. The bit that's messy is the main content with the links as part of the text. It makes it [url=#]messy[/url] and [url=#]hard to read[/url]. Navigation back to the previous page does need to be addressed too as the breadcrumb navigation link at the top of the page should be consistent through the site.

You're better off having blocks of text

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

If you wish to become a primary school teacher, our challenging three-year Initial Teacher Education (ITE) degrees in Early Years Education or Primary Education will be of great interest to you, as will our rewarding Education Studies + PGCE (3+1) programme.

If you want to keep your options open at this stage, you may like to explore our interesting and forward-looking range of single honours degrees such as Early Childhood Studies or Education Studies.

If you are looking for a more flexible option or want to combine two subjects then why not check out the range of joint honours degrees available to you.

[b]Course Details[/b]
[url=#]Initial Teacher Education (ITE) degrees in Early Years Education[/url]
[url=#]Primary Education[/url]
[url=#]Education Studies + PGCE (3+1)[/url]

[b]Applicant information[/b]
[b]Three Year ITE degrees:[/b]

* UG ITE course information sheet (Word, 146KB)
* UG ITE commitment sheet (Word, 127KB)

[b]Education Studies + PGCE (3+1):[/b]

* Education Studies 3+1 (Word, 137KB)
* PGCE Primary (Word, 133KB)

yada yada ya

Mostly OK, but as above if you click on one of the top links the options below disappear and you have to hit the back button, very annoying

How about just collapsing the options as you do further down the tree ?

I think wwaswas is saying what I'm saying, where you've got the text in the main content section of the page that has hyperlinks embedded into it with links to the course details.

Another option is to have these courses as sub-links underneath the menu item on the left, so when you click on it

ie

Welcome
Research
The School
Undergraduate Courses
PG & Professional Courses
....

Welcome
Research
The School
[b]Undergraduate Courses[/b]
[url=#] Initial Teacher Education (ITE) degrees in Early Years Education[/url]
[url=#] Primary Education[/url]
[url=#] Education Studies + PGCE (3+1)[/url]
PG & Professional Courses
....
(the links would be slightly indented from the parent menu item)
But these can become messy and unmanageable if the link text is too long....

the dept home page http://www1.uwe.ac.uk/ssh/education.aspx duplicates the menu options as links from the middle of the page but doesn't have the same structure as the pages underneath it. I think you shoudl stick to the menu's beign used everywhere and actually put some text on the page next to the image.

On my machine the videos don't play properly. Perhaps because I don't use Windows? Could you not put the documents in PDF? I don't have word either.....

Aaaarrggghhh navigating to a page and then trying to get back is a nightmare!

have a look at [url= http://rbi.uwe.ac.uk/internet/Research/researchatuwe/ ]this department[/url] their navigation on the left is better and the content in the main section is much cleaner

Thanks for the feedback guys. Keep them coming. I didn't design the site or come up with any of the content. I'm merely getting some (admittedly cheap:) feedback on [potential] issues with the site.

I know a lot of the issue already but i'm quite involved so felt i needed opinions/feedback from people not involved with the subject matter (i.e knowing the whole structure)