With the submissions for the 2011 eduStyle Awards closing today, the past week has seen many shared their best higher ed websites at eduStyle.
That’s why I kept an eye on the eduStyle twitter account and quickly checked Why Choose FHU? after seeing this tweet from Stewart Foss:
[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/edustyle/status/65868058224361474″]
And, gosh, was it worth my time.
This website is indeed the perfect pitch to prospective students, a pitch providing a compelling argument to convince the right students for this institution presented as a neat package of web, infographics, photos and video wizzardery (yeah, I really loved it, I bet you can tell ;-) on a single web page.
While the complete package looks really great, I really liked the infographics (a new pet peeve of mine) used to present some important numbers.
I also loved the “handmade” video (it was created at the end of 2009, and I can’t believe I’m just discovering it now). This is a beautiful work inspired by a technique widely used in the Common Craft videos.
So, you know I loved it, but what do YOU think about this site? Have you seen other interesting higher ed websites lately?
Tell us by posting a comment!
Single page? Feels more like six pages in one with anchor tags ;)
I do like that they try to give students a feel for who they are as an institution, and they seem to be the type of school that really isn’t all things to all people, so that is appropriate.
Two ideas top of mind that would make it better, imo:
1. Make the visit, request info, and apply links more visible. They could potentially float at the top or in side buttons as the person scrolls (like the feedback buttons some sites have on the side), and/or maybe be repeated after every section. The only way to take these actions right now is to scroll to the very bottom.
2. List of majors? This is extremely important to prospective students, but doesn’t exist anywhere on that page. (Look at Web stats and you notice quickly that prospective students drill for this info.) I can get to the list of majors by clicking academics at the top and going to a different page. While that different page has info about visiting, requesting info, and applying in a fat footer, those links are not featured in any way.