Some Tips for Designing Web-Based Student Services 

1. Feature online and distance learning opportunities prominently on your home page.  Even if your institution's distance learning or online programs are located administratively under a separate division, such as Continuing or Distance Education, it is important to provide a clear and direct link on the institution’s home page.  Many colleges and universities neglect to display these offerings prominently—although it is crucial to do so both from a marketing perspective and from the perspective of users seeking distance and online learning opportunities.

2. Be consistent in design throughout the site.  Create guidelines to ensure that all parts of your site have the same look and feel.  Follow existing recommendations for effective Web site design, many of which are themselves available on the Web. 

3. Remember to create links to and from other relevant pages throughout your institution's Web site. Pasting a brochure on the Web or putting information online in the same form it appears on print creates isolated pieces of information rather than integration of services.  Think of ways to integrate services by linking from one to another whenever it makes sense, and place the links where users will be sure to see them.  It is important to recognize the ways in which services are intertwined and to facilitate related transactions.  Ideally, for example, a student ought to be able to register, apply for financial aid, and pay tuition and fees as part of the same transaction.

4. Keep your focus on meeting students' needs.  Although today's Internet tools make possible a variety of near-dazzling effects, remember to develop your site with your students' needs at the forefront of your design.

5. Provide quick access to "a real person" on every page.  Ensure that students can contact and receive help from someone if they cannot answer all their own questions through your online information and services.  Provide contact information (phone numbers, fax number, and email address).  Make it a required policy to answer all such queries within a limited time frame that is clearly stated. 

6. Use terms that students understand.  Terms such as "matriculation," "Bursar's Office," and financial aid terminology are often confusing to students. Even if your institution uses these standard terms, try to find other language to help students navigate your site easily.

7. Link to external sites when they would be helpful.  Investigate external resources that are already available via the Web and provide links to them when it is more effective to do so than to develop original material for your site.  There are many excellent resources already available via the Internet; link to these rather than spending resources to duplicate what they provide.

8. Make services user-oriented and process-driven rather than provider-oriented.  Consider the perspective of all potential users (e.g., prospective students, current students, faculty, staff, alumni, and site visitors) and provide entry points for each.  In addition, provide direct access on the opening page to important functions and services.  

9. Enable students to do as much business online as possible.  Empower students to initiate and complete many transactions themselves.

10. Be sure that your Web pages are themselves accessible to users with disabilities.  Follow the (World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) guidelines).