Web critique: SAIC portal

The SAIC portal is a complex beast. Actually doing a critique of it has made me look at it in a slightly different light. Although I like to complain about its many downsides, I ended up looking into some of my criticisms to make sure I wasn't just ranting and complaining. I actually ended up learning a thing or two, which may make my portal-user experience just a bit more pleasant.

One of my main beefs with the portal is that it is incredibly dull from a visual standpoint. There is nothing about it that makes me want to dive in and get my hands dirty, which is probably why it has taken me until now to actually look into its different features. I think this is a justified criticism considering we are an art school and all and recognize the importance of visual appeal. About the only thing that adds any visual interest to the site is the slideshow of "featured SAIC art," which I do enjoy. But that is all. From the clouds up top to the gray-blue-blah-with-a-hint-of-red color scheme and the tiny font size, everything visual about it just makes me want to log on, do my business as quickly as possible, and log off.

But I promised I wouldn't just rant. I do not find the navigation of the portal particularly intuitive, but I have to admit that there is a lot of information right there, and in the portions that I do access on a regular basis (Peoplesoft, calendar, financial services), I have been able to eventually find the info that I need after enough clicking around. The titles of the tabs are not particularly helpful (i.e. I see no real distinction between "tools" and "services," so perhaps these two could be combined into one tab or the names could be further specified so that it is clear what is where). Actually, I just learned through the "customize me" tab that I can in fact rename them, so maybe that's just the ticket. I also just discovered the little buttons to minimize and maximize the windows on the first page, which is helpful, because sometimes I suffer from information overload and need to focus on one page. This is particularly helpful for email!

Lastly, I also discovered that I can send in my feedback about the portal (bottom right hand corner under "portal support"), and I can even request feedback. So I just submitted the following comment: "I think it would be extremely useful for all new students entering SAIC to have a mandatory orientation to the many features of the portal at the beginning of the school year, perhaps as a part of the orientation process itself. Or if this is not possible, offering voluntary training sessions throughout the semester would be helpful as well." We might all like the portal better if we'd had a formal orientation to it...we'll see what they say when they write back!