HR/Student Affairs

What do you like about the current MIIS website?

• It has a lot of information & forms, tutorials
• Student Affairs has a one-stop-shop
• The Human Resources area is more visible & accessible. They use it all the time.
• They said it seems clean and like recent changes. It’s easier to navigate. They like the setup.
• They like the What’s New section
• The photos of the Institute are nice photos
• More recent changes
• They like the ability to access their pages and make changes to own area site.
• A suggestion was made to make the homepage have more impact like these sites do:
  • Harvard.edu
  • Amherst
  • Stanford

What would you change about the current MIIS web site?

• Have an intranet with links to Yammer, the MIIS@work blog, MIDD community – along with a best practices page or a tutorial page.
• Have a place for all the HR forms on an intranet
• Making the intranet password-protected … same as banner passwords so they don’t have to remember another one
• The Search Function – it isn’t easy to find things, poor search navigation
• Have simple categories on the home page in a large font like Harvard does
• Store the school’s departments in the Academics category, not have their own links on the home page
• Moving the BannerWeb link to a more prominent position – HR is receiving calls for help in finding it.
• Photos of people next to their contact information, for certain departments on internet – maybe all departments for intranet – HR was concerned about privacy issues.
• Make one of the large categories Contact US/Employment
• They would like more guidance with videos & photos, especially related to legal issues.
• They all seem to lose the homepage design when going into different departments. The designs are even separate between departments.
• Be the Solution – bring it out more, maybe have vertical photos instead of the squat horizontal ones where they are getting lost.
• The colors of the site are ok. They would like to see more campus photos, more flags, admissions building with the big tree.
• Bring in more of the human element in the photos.
• The testimonials on pages are maybe a bit too large & compete with the navigation
• People were getting lost in the programs’ websites. “Even the navigation on top is different! How do I get back?”
• They would like to have each department give a presentation to the other departments about what they do and what their part of the website is about.
• Flickr accounts – have one for MIIS and subcategories for departments that are not shared with the rest of the school.
• Would like more protocols, tutorials, and help using new tools that build our web presence.

What are the top 3 things for which you use the current web site?

• Online Directory (all use it)
• Provide links to students – housing, visa forms, petitions, our programs
• Linking Students to informational videos
• Refer employees to the Employee Handbook, info & forms
• BannerWeb (HR uses it instead of the online directory at times)
• Employment Opportunities

How would you like to be able to use the future MIIS site?

• Electronic Signatures: for legal/visa issues such as the Certificate of Financial Responsibility for international students
• Online Payments: for shipping Immigration documents
• Interactive Forms: for the approval process & benefit forms
• Events Calendar: run by student clubs so they can post their events
• Student Focus Group: please ask the students this question

How could we make the site more innovative & more user focused?

• Interactive forms
• Internal site or blog – one for students and one for faculty & staff
• More YouTube videos embedded on our site
• Stronger use of marketing – the old site had an international feel, the new site feels like it’s leading you somewhere. They would like to see photos of the students in the field, i.e. students at the United Nations. They would like feedback from people who are outside of the MIIS community. Suggestion: look at Boston College for example of good marketing of a website.

Suggest sites that you feel are examples of good web design.

• Harvard (recent update is simple, cool, minimal & great use of photography)
• Stanford
• San Francisco State University
• Middlebury
• Dominican University of California