Among the various renovations across campus, one such refurbishment did not involve contractors or construction crews. The College recently announced that it is planning to revamp its homepage and second-level websites.
"The nature of the website is that it changes and evolves over time," Rick Adams, Director of Publications and Editorial Services said. "It's important to keep things current and respond to what people want when they come to the site."
Since the homepage and websites' inception, various alterations have been made to provide the public with a greater extent of information and resources. This recent adjustment, however, only focused on ameliorating the organization and layout of the websites.
"Dartmouth has been on the web since the mid [19]90s, and over the years there have been some subtle and more significant changes," Adams said. "Yet, this change is more significant due to the architecture of the site, such as the way in which the information is presented."
The changeover involved the participation of students, staff and alumni in order to derive adjustments that could facilitate the public's use of the websites.
"We focused on what kind of academic resources were presented to students, such as finding library resources," Adams said.
Adams invited a group of students to Parkhurst to view and discuss the changes with College administrators.
"I was invited to this website overview committee with other students and we were given a PowerPoint presentation that showed us a prototype of the new homepage and various links," Steven Koutsavlis '05 said.
"We looked at various links such as those relating to student life and academics, and we were asked if the ordering and presence made sense, if it was user friendly and if anything was missing," Koutsavlis added.
Adams maintained contact with various students including Koutsavlis after the presentation to gain a better perspective of the needs of College's undergraduate users.
"They also distributed the web-link in the prototype and we got to look at it and e-mail any additional comments to Rick Adams," Koutsavlis said.
"I definitely felt that Mr. Adams did a good job to reach out to the students and listen to their feedback," he added.
The College ultimately extended the access of the prototype to the public, displaying thumbnails of the new homepage and additional websites online. Some students have responded positively to the College's new image, contrasting the current homepage and websites with the redesigned ones.
"I like it more than the old one," Sophia Schippers '06 said. "It looks more professional. It looks easier to navigate."
Besides the layout of the sites, some students appreciate the aesthetic changes that resulted in the makeover of the homepage's design.
"It seems a lot more artistic and very organic. It flows better and is a lot more welcoming, since the picture flows into the text," Ricky Cole '06 said. "Even though it looks pretty, I wonder if things will be as easy to find."
In an image-driven society, the College may have realized the necessity to distinguish itself among other Ivy League universities by upgrading its online appearance.
"UPenn's website looks very all over the place and not very focused. Harvard's is very dry and pass," Cole said. "Yale's is clean and also calming. Yale's is also very welcoming. That's the kind of look we're going for, but our color is more lively since it's green."
The visual presentation of the site is equally as important as its accessible information, often serving as the first contact individuals may have with the College. Prospective students, for example, may be swayed by their first impressions with Dartmouth.
"The way the name is presented in typeface is very important." Adams said. "The new Dartmouth green is actually very dark. It is much closer to what people consider to be Dartmouth green."
Internet users can judge the alterations for themselves by viewing the new homepage and second-level websites slated to be released this week.
"The changes will take place in the next couple of days," Adams said. "We're making sure we have everything ready to go."
