The new UT Web site has become a hot topic since its appearance, and many students, faculty and staff have mixed feelings about it.

In one day, a new home page was posted in the place of the former UT Web site, which made students pause during a routine e-mail check.

“I at first thought I went to the wrong page,” Eric Aguilar, a junior in psychology, said. “I saw the UT logo and thought, ‘huh?'”

Designers said that since the old site had been up for four years, it was time for a new look.

“It was just time for a change,” Billy Rivet, graphic designer, said. “The old site looked dated. The new look is also a part of a new intuitive to be more consistent in communications.”

UT’s new look is structured to be a better representation of the university for prospective students.

“The site is marketing focused to attract the highest quality students,” Rivet said. “It is built to be a better representation of what UT is.”

While the new look served the internal community, the new site is made for outsider Web surfers.

“The previous site was more for faculty, students and staff,” Bob Hillhouse, director of Web services, said. “This site is for prospective students. It’s focus is to make us look good to help people learn why to choose us over some other place.”

Current UT students were confused by the changes made to the Web site.

“We had no fair warning. They just changed it,” Amy Shearin, a junior in education, said. “I don’t like it as much as the old page. It is not as prone to work with students.”

Alumni were also surprised to see the new Web site but found many of the same problems that students faced.

“The page looks good,” Todd Mitchell, 1996 graduate in botany, said. “One thing that doesn’t jump out at me is the e-mail for students. I didn’t see it on the front page, where it would be most useful.”

Mitchell, however, didn’t express having any navigation problems.

“Navigation is great, easy to understand,” he said. “As far as design goes, it looks awfully similar to the UT Medical Center home page.”

When creating the new site, designers relied on different types of research.

“We tracked old search terms to guide us in setting up navigation,” Lissa Gay, project manager, said. “We wanted to know what kind of information people want on a university Web site. The site was also based on the research of other universities.”

According to Hillhouse, people should have no problem finding what they need after the initial acquaintance with the site. Current students, however, are having problems finding exactly what they need when they need it.

“You’ve got to reacquaint yourself with everything,” Aguilar said. “Everyone who visits normally knows where they want to go, but now, they have to stop to think about it. It shouldn’t be as technical.”

Another student concern lies with the site’s navigation.

“You have to navigate to get anywhere,” Shearin said. “They should have given us a period to learn about it, but it may get easier with time.”

Also, new search methods are also posing problems for students.

“The search is non-definative,” Lisa McGregor, a sophomore in nursing, said. “You have to go to other means to find what you need.”

Loading up Web pages is another common problem students have found with the new site.

“It takes longer to get to pages,” Aguilar said. “The longer loading time means you can’t get to what you want in a hurry. Students like to access WebMail between classes, but now it takes too long.”

Although the look is favorable, many students find it hard to locate items.

“I like the overall look of the Web page. It’s more appealing to the eyes,” Aguilar said. “However, it seems that in order to make it look better, more items are on the main page making links smaller.”

In the future, Aguilar said that the site should look nice and be user-friendly.

“The site isn’t as user-friendly,” Aguilar said. “It’s confusing. Students want things to be simple. In short, it’s nicer to the eyes but harder to use. They should think of a good in-between next time.”

Because the creation of a Web site is always an ongoing process, designers are always checking the feedback they get by e-mail.

“We want to continue to build up the site,” Rivet said. “We want to develop consistency throughout the Web site. Currently, all the sites look different. By doing this, our internal audience can better use things they need, and we have a marketing tool to attract students.”