The Memorial Union-Bland, Faulty, and Slow: Not a Recipe for Success

Bland, Faulty, and Slow: Not a Recipe for Success

By Elyssa Margolin and Clark Tate

When one pictures college, they may picture a buzzing, exciting place with students gathering for food, fun and studies. The Memorial Union is intended to be the centerpiece for student activities at Arizona State University (ASU). It is a massive building centered on the Tempe campus covering 254,000 square feet, more than an ample amount of space for the more than 70,000 students to mingle. Although there are plenty of interesting things happening at The Memorial Union (MU), students may not think so due to the lack of advertising presented on behalf of The Memorial Union’s website (http://www.asu.edu/studentaffairs/mu/index.htm). The Memorial Union at ASU has a well organized but bland website that does not encourage students to visit the physical location on campus.

Color, appearance, and eye-friendly graphics are arguably the most important aspects when designing a website. People who visit the website do not want to be bored, but instead want to be excited by what they are viewing. When a website is boring, bland, or just plain empty, it does not create an interest to look further on the website. This is the case of the Memorial Union at Arizona State University’s website. The main layout consists of some maroon and gold, but is mostly white with all black text. This layout simply does not send an exciting message. If the Memorial Union wishes to encourage students to visit their location on campus, the website needs to possess more color and flare than it currently does.

The amount of white space present on The Memorial Union website gives it an empty feeling. There are only a handful of graphics presented on the whole website, but the graphic most particularly eye-catching is the graphic on the opening page of the MU’s website. It is a revolving image that displays relevant information for current and upcoming activities and events at the MU. It flashes from one event to the next, with about a three second delay between images. This could be a very effective tool for advertising the events to the students of ASU, except that the images chosen often have little information, and the images in the sequence are rarely updated. 

There is also a small hiccup in the graphic as well. When the graphic changes from picture to picture, there is a flash of an image for a split second, then the graphic flashes directly to the next image in the sequence. It is almost as if a picture is being skipped every time the graphic sequences from one image to the next. This doesn’t change the functionality or purpose of the graphic, but it is quite an eyesore, takes away from the effectiveness of the graphic, and leaves one wondering if they are missing something that may be of interest. There are a few small photos displayed in the various sub categories of the MU’s website, usually to display the faces of employees of the MU, who you may encounter on a visit to the physical location on Tempe’s campus; interesting, but not an inducement to go to the MU.

Also adding to the empty feeling of The Memorial Union web page is the consistently square, black and white text throughout the site. Although the text should be easy to read and fairly consistent, it makes the page visitor feel as if they are reading a paper for an English class, rather than reading information on a website. If the MU wants to attract more visitors to their website, and in turn to their physical location, they need to reevaluate the text on their site. It needs to draw viewers in and be more exciting than the type of text someone would find on a college thesis paper. If the MU went with a less formal design and layout, the website would have less of a structured and rigid feel to it and allow for a more enjoyable visit.

The Memorial Union web page is relatively user-friendly. The plain and simple layout and design, while taking away from the visual effectiveness of the website, does allot for a user-friendly visit. A linked content tab on the left side of the page will direct your visit, and a quick link box designated to news and scheduled events at the MU is on the right. The news and events box on the right is comprised of six hyperlinks, and complete with a quick link to the MU’s Twitter and Facebook pages. The menu pane located on the left side of the page, is divided into five main navigation tabs that provide an account of all the services provided within the MU’s location on Tempe’s campus. These navigation tabs include: MU services, The MU, Event and Meeting Services, Student Resources, and Student Involvement. These menu tabs are further broken down into six to ten subcategory hyperlinks, which take you directly to the portion of the web page that houses the information you are seeking. There is an account of every restaurant and shop in the MU included under the MU services tab, which includes a table of operating hours, and the days on which the restaurants and other businesses are open.

Out of all of these links, one of the most useful is the “Contact Us” link. It can be found on the main page, at the bottom of the main hyperlinks. The way that it is set up is similar to an email site. The visitor can put their name, email address, and a comment or question regarding a specific topic relating to The Memorial Union. It can be useful because it is easy to use, but it can be frustrating if the visitor has a simple question that they would like answered immediately. There are no phone numbers listed under the “Contact Us” link, so if the viewer wants an immediate response from the MU, they will have to go there in person to receive the response. This can be extremely inconvenient for various reasons. For example, an out-of-state potential student may be researching student resources at Arizona State University and may come across the Memorial Union website and have a question. They will not be able to have their question answered until someone responds to their email they sent via the “Contact Us” link. This could potentially hurt Arizona State University’s recruiting process. If the potential student does not have a positive website experience related to the MU, their decision when choosing whether or not to attend ASU could be negatively impacted.

On the main page for the Memorial Union is a link on the right side named “Meeting and Events Schedule”. This is arguably the most well-organized and best part of the website, and it is on a completely separate browser than the Arizona State University website. It is organized by a company called Event Management Systems. It contains every detail that someone could possibly want to know about every event on campus from events taking place after the normal day’s classes, to special events planned on the weekend, and even information about famous people making appearances to ASU for concerts, benefits, or other such events.

If all the well-organized links worked consistently, praise would be due for the organization. However on a few occasions, the links send one to the wrong area, or does not send one anywhere. Other times, the links on the left side of the page would send one to a blank page filled with HTML code and random computer jargon. This happened on both Apple and PC operating systems, so it is unclear if this is because of formatting issues with this particular part of the website, or with the greater Arizona State University server.

On occasion, The Memorial Union’s website operates very sluggishly. There are instances when the connection to the server times out, where nothing loads, and the internet browser being used says that the website trying to be reached is not available, and to try again. This is very frustrating especially when one may be trying to find a specific bit of information with a time constraint. While this only happened on one specific incidence, it is still annoying to have to refresh the browser for a second attempt at connecting with the server.

Although the website for the Memorial Union at Arizona State University contains very valuable and helpful information, the bland format of the website, occasional faulty links, and slow responsiveness leads students to become discouraged from visiting the actual location on campus. If Arizona State University wishes for more visitors at their student center, they need to reevaluate their website and make some major improvements. A world-class university such as ASU deserves to have a world-class representation of their facilities on the primary platform for young viewers looking for information.  Certainly ASU must have hundreds of website construction student experts that could design and publish a view of the MU that would excite students to visit, use the facilities and improve their college experience. An exciting website leads to excited students, which leads to an exciting college experience.