New Site

Dean Giannini promised Library Journal (and us) a new and improved site that would be launched in June. What do you think?!?

Your Assignment

Write an open letter about the site, SILS, whatever and post it in the comments. Hilarity ensues.

The Thing That Made My Eyeballs Bleed Today

Go to the Pratt SILS site. Click on Mission. Prepare yourself for typos, rampant run-on sentences, a broken link and a cacophonous layout.

Seriously, take away all of the design issues for a minute. Please, for the love of God, proofread! It would be unacceptable to hand-in a paper that looked like this. Why is it acceptable for the public face of Pratt SILS to be riddled with typos and incomprehensible sentences?

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.

Summertime

As the semester winds down and thoughts turn to more pleasant things, just a reminder to keep checking back with this blog. We’ll be continuing to post throughout the summer.

We look forward to criticizing many more site features, such as the link on the home page that opens a PDF without warning. Good one!

A Contest

Can you find the typo on the Visit Us: Open Houses page? It may be a little hard to locate, since your eyes could start bleeding, but give it a shot.

pratt.edu/%7Einfosils/openhouse.html

Where is Pratt?

If there’s one thing we’ve learned from developing this blog, it’s that the site appears to be under the total control of the dean. We have a completely embarrassing site which does nothing to sell the school to prospective students or help current ones, and yet faculty and students stay silent.

Now that the dean has floated the idea of creating a PhD program at SILS, it makes the site even more of an embarrassment. What sort of PhD candidates would we get with such a terrible site? How is the school going to become any sort of legitimate research institution without even the most basic web information standards not being followed? The current site does not lend SILS to be taken seriously.

The Thing That Made My Eyeballs Bleed Today

The latest addition to the html atrocity known as the Pratt SILS site:

OUR CAMPUS - Harnessing digital technology, we teach students to design a more usable and understandable world connecting people, information, ideas and meaning. The Master of Science in Library & Information Science prepares students as professionals in this exciting and challenging field.

Wah? I need an “embarassed” emoticon to fully illustrate how much I cringed when I saw this. Will anyone who looks at the site find this little blurb remotely credulous? I’d love to see a little digital technology harnessed to create a more usable and understandable website for Pratt SILS.

As a side note, it is interesting to SSS how people seem to feel personally about Dean Giannini. While that is not the purpose of SSS, we do believe the Pratt Institute Board of Directors and President Schutte may well want to take note of the students’ level of frustration and the Dean’s complete lack of interest, real or perceived, in listening and acting on student feedback. Great academic leaders put student and institutional needs before their own aspirations.

A Contest

The first person to correctly identify the typo on the front page of the Pratt SILS site wins dinner and a movie with the security guard of their choice.

Pratt SILS is so depressing

How can Pratt SILS market classes like “Usability” and “Information Architecture” while simultaneously having a disastrous website and an on-line registration system that doesn’t work semester after semester? What a bait and switch. Too bad the administration, especially the Dean, are so good at talking and so bad at understanding and doing. Especially doing. No one is interested in the Dean’s long winded explanations of why she can’t do or change something. I’d like to actually see some comprehension in her eyes before she begins yet another soliloquy.

Readers – where will Pratt SILS be in the school ranking in five years under the deanship of Tula? I look forward to your predictions.