Posts Tagged public facades

A Collection of UW Problems

Note: I don’t have a publication date for this column, but from the context it’s in late October or early November 1997, Published in the UW Branding Iron.

By Adam Lederer
BI Columnist

Like every semester, there are many stupid things about UW that could use some improvement.

Perhaps the one that stands out the most in my mind in my mind is the sound system in the Arena-Auditorium (for the uninitiated, the basketball arena).

I’ve been in the A-A twice this semester and both times I have been unable to understand a word uttered by those speaking.

The first occasion was for President Philip Dubois’ installation ceremony held Oct. 4 prior to the Montana football game.

The ceremony was not memorable since I could only hear a few phrases here and there throughout the speech.

Even worse was Gov. Jim Geringer’s welcoming talk. From my seat, Geringer’s talk sounded like a subway car coming into a station, but lasted 10 times as long.

I also suffered through another poor sound experience in the A-A during Midnight Madness Oct. 17.

It was fascinating watching the ‘Pokes take the floor for their first practice. Whether it was the excitement of watching sophomore guard Andy Young or Wyoming hometown hero Gregg Sawyer, it was fun.

But, again, I couldn’t hear more than a few words at a time over the sound system. The only thing I could hear clearly was Denny Dent’s awesome painting performance.

Perhaps it had something to do with the fact they brought in a separate sound system for him.

We need an upgrade for the A-A’s sound system – preferably before the basketball season gets started Nov. 16.

Another really stupid thing about campus is the new and nearly impossible to use top web page.

In this wired world, the home page for any university is an important front door for many prospective students and other visitors.

The folks in charge of the page need to think about ease of use, not try to incorporate every neat new technological twist that is developed for the web.

Frames are one of those neat technological twists that some twisted person developed for the web. It also is one of the big problems with the new top web page.

In the right hand frame, there’s a collection of blocks that link to different parts of the university.

Too bad they don’t always link to what you expect. The image of a UW wrestler links to a collection of “UW Sports Action Shots,” not to Athletics, as I first guessed.

To add insult to injury, the collection of pictures doesn’t even have a link to the athletics department.

That’s not the only example of poor web page design.

If you actually want to connect to athletics (or research, a key component of the university), you have to go to the left hand frame and search down a long list of what appear to be randomly sorted links.

That’s almost enough to turn any cybervisitor away from the university.

Maybe it has.

Adam Lederer is a graduate student in political science minoring in environment and natural resources. He earned his bachelor’s from UW in 1996.

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