Archive for September, 2008
Tutortrac database design
Tutortrac’s database setup is interesting. There is only one database of students and this database gets updated each time there is an upload. What this means is that individual semesters aren’t repositories of snapshot data. For example, you can’t go back six years, say, to find out how many freshmen came to your center. Why? Because all of the freshmen have now graduated and they are no longer freshmen. For this reason, you cannot do trend analysis on key metrics without having saved each semester’s data outside of Tutortrac. No one would think to do this as this peculiar behavior is not widely publicized and unless you’re a database expert it’s unlikely that you’d ask. This is not a feature. It was a poor design decision that speaks to the disconnect between what users need and what RedRock is prepared to deliver. Certainly there should be more documentation available and perhaps popup notification every time that an upload is attempted. There should also be a one click function for exporting the database into some separate repository where it can be easily accessed when needed.
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Website 3.0
Website 3.0
This new website improves upon the previous site by focusing on aesthetics, ease of navigation and increased speed and functionality.
Aesthetics
The overall site design is more polished and internally consistent. The intent was for it to be simple while still remaining visually appealing. The red and black scheme complements Rutgers’ design aesthetic. Some visual references to the old site have been retained to maintain a thematic bridge and to facilitate navigation.
Navigation
The site is much easier to navigate. Information is grouped in a more coherent fashion and more functions execute on the same page from which they were called.
Speed
We eliminated several images and minimized the remaining. Pages were eliminated when possible. As a result, the site folder size is halved and now loads more quickly.
Functionality
The site contains more features than in the previous version. Our goal was to add useful rather than cosmetic functionality. We believe that we’ve succeeded.
- Selected tables are sortable
- Designated links execute a
tooltip on mouseover - All primary pages have a site search box and text-sizing functionality
- Visual cues to filetype proceed selected links
- Layout is fluid and conforms to different screen resolutions
- Email links are encrypted as a SPAM fighting measure
This site was produced internally using code and applications freely available on the web. Over the next few weeks we will work on fixing a few lingering glitches and to make additional improvements relating to standards compliance, speed and accessibility. Our goal is to have a site that can serve as a model for excellent learning center web design. We also intend to make the resources that were used in creating this site available on our blog. Please share your opinion from our contacts page.
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