UCC Cork Website - Is this a joke?

Dun

Been thinking about doing a postgrad, and I came onto the UCC website, and I could not believe what I was seeing. What a mess! I presume (hope) they don't have an IT Faculty.

For good measure, they included my pet hate - blank space for you to scroll down and look at (courtesy of this lovely tr:

    <td width="110" height="338" colspan="2">
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I went to the University of Ulster myself, and though I may be a bit biased, they do have a good site. NUI Galway's site is nice, but more than a bit graphics heavy.

Any other decent Uni/Regional IT web sites out there? Or more examples of what not to do?

cgarvey

Pretty dire alright .. all sorts of spacing issues in FireFox

Dun

It's not Firefox - does the same in IE, cause I checked in case. I also forgot to mention the lovely horizontal scrolling too.

rymus

Ah good.. I thought it was only me that noticed one of Irelands largest colleges had a completely awful website. Nice to know I'm not alone in my criticism

toxic_angel

what is exactly wrong with the ucc website. its user friendly and easy to navigate.

Stark

Yes and Custard Creams are delicious (sorry I keep thinking of them when I look at the website ).

It's a joke alright. At least that "University of the Year" thing no longer flashes at you in cyan text. The website they had before that was just as bad, the fairly plain white one they had first day was perfect

[CrimsonGhost]

http://www.itb.ie the website for the institute of technology blanchardstown is nice enough. Simple to navigate and looks to the xhtml transitional compliant. At least that is what they seem to be aiming for.

Dun

Originally posted by toxic_angel
what is exactly wrong with the ucc website. its user friendly and easy to navigate.

.. and designed like a four year old with a packet of crayons in the dark. Well, firstly, I'm sure many people check out educational establishments, and it's not a site that would fill you with confidence about the place, especially if you look at UU or NUIG or some of the others. And secondly, it's not at all professional. Do they take the Internet seriously at all?

Take Clonmany.com for example. It is a brilliant site in terms of content - it has so much information, it's mind-boggling. It's [fairly] easy to navigate, but it again is designed like a first year secondary school student who's just discovered paints for the first time. However, it's a voluntary piece of work, whereas the UCC web site is its representation on the Internet. And you know what they say about first impressions. I'm not putting UCC down, I don't know what kind of reputation it has, but it's web site is, well, crap.

By the way, do you go to UCC, planning to go, or a Corkonian yourself?

parasite

yeah it's a shame, as far as i know ucc.ie was the first .ie website created

there is lots of good info on the domain, but it's scattered everywhere
sigh

Cabaal

Originally posted by k.oriordan
Yes and Custard Creams are delicious (sorry I keep thinking of them when I look at the website ).

It's a joke alright. At least that "University of the Year" thing no longer flashes at you in cyan text. The website they had before that was just as bad, the fairly plain white one they had first day was perfect

Its is evil looking alright the same goes for WIT.ie it used to look like ****e but I like there new site http://www.wit.ie/

Stark

The sad thing is it cost over €10,000 for the UCC website to be put together, and that was with the content carried over from the previous website.

Dun

Sweet Jebus! €10,000? Even with a lot of content, it's a joke for that work at that price. I mean even the simple graphics are a disgrace (and more than a bit pointless for such a plain font):

yellum

Originally posted by parasite
yeah it's a shame, as far as i know ucc.ie was the first .ie website created

One fo the first handful in the world actually. The webmaster uses boards now and then, but he was not the person that created the site. He has to maintain the heap of **** that the PR Dept payed tens of thousands for.

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

rymus

perhaps it was done by some transition year student from a nearby school on a weeks work experience?

richardo

That is being unfair to transition year students. They generally produce much better work.

Anyway, far play to the company that designed it. I admire them. They may have a cr*p design team but their sales dept. gets full marks

toxic_angel

By the way, do you go to UCC, planning to go, or a Corkonian yourself?

yes i go to ucc.

Stark

Anyway, far play to the company that designed it. I admire them. They may have a cr*p design team but their sales dept. gets full marks

Nepotism. One of the oldest and still the most effective sales tactics. Basically the website was done by the head of UCC's publications department's husband.

dahamsta

I always thought that it was done by the students. It's a bloody disgrace that the college would lash out that much money (for a crap site) when they have a load of bloody students just lying around drinking and doing drugs and stuff!

adam

Dun

Nepotism - that explains a lot. I wonder if all 30 days of the dreamweaver trial were used before it was finished.

toxic_angel

when they have a load of bloody students just lying around drinking and doing drugs and stuff!

dont u dare tar us all with same brush.... as a moderator u'd expect a little common sense. let me guess your a techie who didnt get enough points for ucc and are now as bitter as fvck. watch what u say

Enygma

coming down?

Stark

He's only taking the piss.

He should have said specified arts students to be politically correct

Anyway, because the postgrads keep saying "I'm a postgrad, not a student", I'm just going to go around saying "I'm an undergrad, not a student"

yellum

The funny thing is thats the site previous to that was crap too but a bit better than that and UCC payed another 10k for it, after firing another company who refused to put frames on every page, the company that got fired still got a good few grand too for their efforts.

Yes, you read it correctly, they specified that frames had to be used. How ahead of the times.

If someone wants to find out the actual costs you can always use a Freedom of Information request.

Oh and when staff started slagging off the site, the design company threatened legal action.

dahamsta

Originally posted by toxic_angel
dont u dare tar us all with same brush.... as a moderator u'd expect a little common sense. let me guess your a techie who didnt get enough points for ucc and are now as bitter as fvck. watch what u say

Ill hav u no dat i got a hunred millun billun poynts in mi leving. How mny gld strs did ur mommy giv u 4 not peeing in ur pullups 2day?

adam

Seth Brundle

the daz challenge for UCC.ie

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

Asok

Originally posted by toxic_angel
dont u dare tar us all with same brush.... as a moderator u'd expect a little common sense. let me guess your a techie who didnt get enough points for ucc and are now as bitter as fvck. watch what u say

ph33r tbh

Stark

[OT] Any chance that "University of the year" thing is like that bit in the Simpson "everyone has to win it at least once"?

pork99

I believe that a redesign of the UCC site has been put out for tender if anyone wants to check up on it.

Check Limerick Institute of Technology .

The page is bland but inoffensive however click on the "Courses" link; nasty!

This from a college which offers a degree in graphic design!?

Plus they use frames

Seth Brundle

Originally posted by pork99
The page is bland but inoffensive however click on the "Courses" link; nasty!

Clip art?

pork99

Originally posted by kbannon
Clip art?

you betchya!

sure graphic designers, who needs them? :rolleyes:

decob

<table width="1405" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"  height="1">

obviously designed and optimised for users with monitors running at 1600 x 1200...

Dun

I love the way they're whoring their LIT-branded Credit Card on the home page.

Anybody else notice that blue seems to be the new (IT) black?
Letterkenny IT, Tallaght IT (TIT - sure are for thinking this is a nice colour), Limerick IT, Waterford IT, Dundalk IT, Tralee IT, Carlow IT.. the list goes on.

A special mention must go to Sligo IT for "Click here to skip Flash Intro. Best viewed at 800x600 with IE5.5" (Didn't bother waiting for it, dial-up connection, but I obviously shouldn't be viewing it, seeing I'm using Firefox, and a ridiculously high res. of 1024 x 768), and to Cork IT, for their woozifying horizontal lines, bizarre colour combinations, and art nouveau feel.

p

College sites are notoriously difficult to design. There's so much administration & structure it's a mess. + you've got tons of legacy content too. Add to that the infighting that you have in some colleges and the end result is a load of crap college websites.

Incidentayll 10k is nothing when you're talking a site of that scale. Managing dealing withthe client alone would cost that much.

My own college: www.dcu.ie doesn't fare any better, though one of their departments has a decent site: www.computing.dcu.ie

Dun

That's what I really like about the University of Ulster website, it's professionally laid out, and consistent throughout. When I was looking through the UCD/DCU/TCD web sites, I kept looking at the URL as the pages kept changing design, and I was wondering if I'd been sent off-site.

I know €10k is a spit in the barrell for something of that magnitude, but at the same time it was way too much for what was actually done.