Information Architecture Internship!

Oh wait.  It’s not for Pratt SILS, you say?  It’s for Pratt’s site?  Oh.  We thought since the Dean had publicly promised a site redesign several months ago and students had already completed an IA assessment of the site in Walcyzk’s class…

Never mind.  That would all make too much sense and would not provide the Dean with her chance to give students the middle finger every time we look at the site.

By the way, have you heard about the Dean’s exciting yearly vacation in London, uh, I mean the Pratt SILS London program?  Colleagues must be tremendously impressed when they look at the SILS site and see who will be joining them to delve into e-publishing.  SSS can’t make this stuff up!

A Response

We read with great interest Norman Oder’s post on the LJ Insider blog about Pratt SILS Site Sucks. Since SSS was not contacted for a comment, we would like to take this opportunity to respond to a few key points.

First, Pratt SILS’s website is not a “temporary” site as Dean Giannini contends. It has been online since approximately 2005 in a similar iteration and can in no way be described as temporary or transitional.

Secondly, we do not criticize the site because it’s not “pretty”. We criticize it because it is hard to use. If, as Dean Giannini says, providing “content is the most important” purpose of the site, poor information design directly impacts its effectiveness for this very purpose. This is not about wanting the Pratt SILS site to be graphically pleasing (although there is nothing wrong with that and, indeed, that does make a site more pleasant to use, which increases user satisfaction). The site is rich in content, but is a hodgepodge of poorly organized information. Websites are not intended to be brochures, as Dean Giannini contends. Rather, they should be information portals that focus on key audiences and provide that information in an effective and useful manner. In addition, sites should reflect well on the institution they represent. It is incumbent upon those who design and implement sites to make them as useful as possible.

Finally, we would like to raise a key point about the anonymity of the blog. Direct talks with Dean Giannini about the SILS site have been attempted several times, and she has always been both defensive of the site and dismissive of any offers to work with her to improve it. Many students have volunteered their time and expertise to make the site a highly useful informational tool for the school, and nothing has come of it. SSS hopes Mr. Oder will continue to follow both SSS and the Pratt SILS site. We truly hope to report, along with him, on the new, attractive, and, most importantly, usable SILS site in June. We look forward to the promised redesign, just as we looked forward to past promises. If SSS doesn’t hold its breath, don’t hold it against us.

The Thing That Made My Eyes Bleed Today

Go the Pratt SILS main page and click on “Library Media Specialist’.

How do you get back to the main page? Got me!

The Thing That Made My Eyeballs Bleed Today

Huh?

Information sheds light on knowing and doing –

iDEA school
information Design, Education & Art

Do any Pratt SILS students know what this “iDEA school” thing is exactly? Have any of us heard of it? Anyone involved with this? Can anyone “shed some light” on this “iDEA” thing? Any idea? Any at all? Is this supposed to be a mission statement for Pratt SILS or some random program in which no one is actually involved? It’s perplexing.

Good thing we have this graphic to clarify and excite.

It’s hard to understand why Pratt SILS would choose to promote a program (if that’s what this is) on Information Design and Art in this unattractive fashion. The tagline and graphic offer no actual information and provide no link to more information. The point seems to be a chance to showcase a graphic that moves. Totally awesome! This Web 2.0 is really amazing! Let’s get a tagcloud next!

The Thing That Made My Eyeballs Bleed Today

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. What do these photos on the Pratt SILS site say about our school?

Police Car with Hood Up: Welcome to the Neighborhood!

Students Crowded Around One Computer in Sad Common Area.

Yes, This is the Cyber Cafe We’ve Been Crowing About. No, Don’t Bother Bringing a Laptop Because You Will Have Nowhere Else to Use It.

Further Proof of Our Cutting Edge Technological Skills: We Can Use the Time Stamp Feature. Sort Of.

I don’t even want to get into the sad photos of our faculty because I don’t want anyone to think it is in any way a criticism of them. Seriously, we have some great faculty and they are represented in such a shoddy way. The faculty must cringe thinking about their friends and former colleagues googling them. I know I would.

The photos on and design of the faculty page send a message to current and potential students, as well as alumni and other library and information science schools — Pratt SILS doesn’t incorporate technology or design into its website or the curriculum.

The Thing That Made My Eyeballs Bleed Today

Once a day, we will try to post a real-world example of what makes the SILS site suck so badly.

Today, it’s this little gem on the front page:

“LOCATED AT 144 W. 14TH St. -
MANHATTAN IS OUR CAMPUS”

This poorly written sentence makes a user expend just that little extra bit of mental energy figuring out what exactly is meant. Obviously, the entire island of Manhattan is not located at 144 W. 14th Street, but it’ll take you a second to untangle the real intent out of that sentence.

Now this isn’t that horrible, all things considered. But it’s an embarrassingly easy example of the total lack of thought put into the creation of the best marketing and informational tool Pratt has at its disposal.