Sun Devil Fitness Center. Lets get fit!

Everyone knows of the dreadful “Freshman 15” of which first year college students are supposed to endure during there experience at a university.  It may be the sadness of the students not seeing their family, or possibly the availability of food all over campus, but whatever it is there is a way to stop it. At Arizona State University they have a well-equipped facility to aid you in your battle against the “Freshman 15”. The Sun Devil Fitness Complex, formally called the Student Recreation Center, is a place where students at Arizona State can go to work out, play some racquetball, swim, and multiple other activities.  Not only is the Sun Devil Fitness complex, or the “SDFC”, complete with top-notch equipment, it also has a great website.  The Sun Devil Fitness Complex website is a knowledgeable and helpful website in reference to health information and events.

The Sun Devil Fitness Complex website seems to have been developed very well especially with the content it provides. The home page of the website displays a variety of different tabs and one of them is for programs. The programs tab shows the user all of the different activities that they can participate in at the Sun Devil Fitness Complex. For example, one of the choices under programs happens to be “Sun Devil Sports Clubs”. This shows the variety of clubs offered through Arizona State available to all of the students. This is a great feature that the Fitness Complex website has due to the large population of students and the interest of getting involved at their university. Not only does the Sun Devil Fitness Complex have a great tab for the programs but it also has a great section for the different services available. A specific service that happened to catch my eye was the Bike Co-op. This service is offered to Arizona State students who happen to need bicycle repairs, tune-ups, or even a rental. This valuable piece of information is necessary to have on the Fitness Complex website because out of all the ways of transportation, bicycles are the most popular around campus. Not only does the Fitness Complex website do a great job of making important content appear just one click away from the home page, but it also has strong visuals surrounding this content to help attract users.

Once the user is on the website they will notice the attracting visuals that are on the homepage. When browsing on the homepage of the SDFC website you will notice one major thing, the application of Arizona State colors, maroon and gold. Using the school colors is necessary to the website’s connection to Arizona State. The colors are not only a trademark but they also give the user a comforting and energetic feel. The color gold gives the feeling of success, while the color maroon gives off the vibe of power. These are both great for a website to stress the importance of fitness. In addition to having the school colors, the SDFC website also posts pictures of students working out. The pictures show the different activities that you can participate in at the SDFC. This is nice for anyone who wants to see what the SDFC looks like and how the students utilize the structure. For example on when you click on the programs tab the top picture is one of the dance classes that is offered at the SDFC. This allows the user to see an in action instructional class without even leaving their computer. The pictures not only show activities happening but they also inspire people to go out and try these different classes. It gives the user a “Hey is this guy can do it, I can!” mentality. This is definitely a great thing to have available for the incoming freshman or new community members. In addition to the great visual attractions on the website, there is also vital information given.

When you have finally figured out you want to try something at the SDFC the next step would be to find times or someone to contact. Well on the website there is a ton of information involving the hours of the complex, who to email about what event or activity, and also a brief description of those activities, clubs or events. On the homepage to the right off the screen there is a list of all the different locations and there hours of operation. It will also include holiday hours when a certain holiday is approaching. Of course this information is vital and it is in a great location so everyone can see it and not have to search around a whole website. With all of this information constantly changing the SDFC website does a fantastic job of keeping up with updating the info.  If one wants to find more information about a club or class, under the programs tab there is a list of the different sections to choose from and in there you will find all of the information regarding that certain club or activity. You can find a brief description of what it is, the hours it goes on, and who to email involving that class or club. A website cannot just have great information but it must also have friendly usability that comes along with it.

            Usability on the SDFC website is easy for any type of Internet user to understand. It is very clear where things can be found but also is not too dumbed down. The tab layout the website uses have very nice broad topics. When the user clicks on one of these tabs it brings down a menu of more specific topics to choose from. This is a great way to conserve much needed text space. Without this feature the website would be cluttered with information that the user may not even need to see, therefore making it overwhelming. While using the tabs there are no known broken links that exist, so everything you see can be accessed one way or another. As with any website with all this good there comes a little bad.

            As a result of having so much information on one site the SDFC does leave out a couple of non-critical but useful things. For example, at the SDFC there are open gyms of which any paying member can go and utilize as long as it is not reserved. What the SDFC should have is a schedule for when these gyms are reserved. This would allow the gyms to be used at the full potential since users would know when they could come and when they cannot.  This also applies to the racquetball courts. When they are reserved by the ASU team they should post it onto the website homepage, thus allowing everyone to see that the courts will not be available. This would not only benefit the students but also the community who drive a decent distance just to find out they cannot access the certain part of the SDFC they may have wanted to use. Along with not posting gyms reservations, there is another flaw with the SDFC website. While the website does have all the classes and clubs offered there, the clubs themselves have to update the different information about that club. This allows a lot of room for error considering each club has to update their information when anything changes. For example, if a club decides that they want to meet different days of the week, they would have to let someone know to change that on there website. This seemingly becomes a long process to change one thing, and to an interested person of that specific club the information on the club webpage could now be outdated. Although there are some flaws with the website overall it still has a great overall feel.

            With the Sun Devil Fitness Complex website being such a great source for health information around the Arizona State campus, it has minimal flaws. The content that is supported through the SDFC website is immense, it includes services available, different health events supported by Arizona State, and also a long list of programs. Along with all the content the SDFC does a great job with the visuals it uses on its website. Using the Arizona State colors as a theme really promotes health and fitness to its students and surrounding community. In addition to the colors there are the pictures that are motivational to many who view the website. The information the SDFC posts is also very useful to the public, it states the location and hours our all the fitness centers available to use, and also information about all the clubs and classes that are available at the SDFC.  With all of the information available on the website they do a great job with the usability of the website. The tab layout is simple to navigate, while there are no broken links. Yet with every website there are some flaws such as clubs updating there own information and the lack of reserved gym hours. Overall I think the Sun Devil Fitness Complex did a great job with the website, thus promoting great health throughout the Arizona State community.