MBA Admissions Web Sites: Not All Are Equal

(page 2 of 2)

While Web design was not the focus, we kept in mind the elements of good Web design (BusinessWeek.com, 6/23/08) and noted when design factors contributed to or detracted from the usability of the site. We also frowned upon content that lapsed into MBA lingo or relied on knowledge that would likely be known only to an MBA inner circle. After all, most using the site aren't MBA students yet, and shouldn't be expected to speak the language.

FIRST AND LAST

In a way, it shouldn't be a surprise that the winner of our Web site competition was Carnegie Mellon's Tepper School of Business, a school known for cutting-edge technology as well as its highly-regarded business school. And the school's Web development team spent a year researching and planning the site's latest design—its third. It took a mere two minutes and four seconds to find all the information, compared with nearly five minutes or more for many others.

On Tepper's Web site, all of the elements fell into place—a clear and thoughtful layout, intelligent but judicious use of flash-based slide shows, and complete, informative content. It's very easy to navigate your way to Tepper's site from Carnegie Mellon's main page, and from there, to move around the site gathering what you need. One can, if necessary, pluck a couple of crucial points—a deadline, perhaps, or the word count for an admissions essay—and leave the site without a single grunt of frustration or unnecessary click.

Deb Magness, Tepper's executive director of marketing, explained that the school improved its site, which was formerly text-heavy and poorly laid out, through a focus on the user. "Some schools design their Web sites according to their organizational chart, and you never want to do that," she said. "We have it very streamlined. What would have taken five clicks now takes one."

At the other end of the spectrum, it took about seven minutes to gather most of the information we wanted from the University of California at Los Angeles' Anderson School of Management Web site—the worst showing of the bunch. And even after all that searching, we never found contact information for the admissions director. If it's there, it's buried too deep to be accessed without the search function. Font sizes that ranged from tiny to tinier, and a poorly planned organizational scheme added to the frustration.

Mae Jennifer Shores, UCLA Anderson's Assistant Dean and Director of Admissions, said last week that a redesign of the web site is in progress and that the school is working with a design firm, with a particular push toward making it more interactive. In the meantime, UCLA has added two blogs to the MBA program home page, one as a voice for MBA students and the other produced by members of the admissions office.

But, schools and Web sites can change. Initially, Cornell University's Johnson School was at the bottom of our list. But in recent days it has undergone a redesign that made it quite a bit easier to use. The changes shaved over two and a half minutes off its time, and shot it up to position nine.

To see the results of our Web site test for all 20 schools, check out our slide show.

Business Exchange related topics:
Business School
Web Design
Search Engine Optimization

Levy is a BusinessWeek reporting intern.