What Matters Most Students indicate that admissions, financial aid, and course information are their most important concerns when visiting a college Web site. Students also rated information on the college location and campus safety as very important. Although students said that Web site content was more important than visual appeal, WSES finds that students tend to rate sites markedly higher when they are more pleased with the visual appeal than with the content. It is also important that sites strike the right balance of information and graphics. Too many pictures and graphics the study finds can frustrate users as download speed slows to a crawl, yet too few pictures will not satisfy visitors who want to get a clear idea of what the campus and students there look like.
Students also expect colleges to present a distinctive home page and image.
Most of the twelve institutions WSES tested failed to earn a more than a five or six on a ten-point scale for their home pages from prospects. Interestingly enough, individuals with slower access do not complain more about download speed, indicating perhaps that they recognize the limitations of their modems. There are a few complaints about college Web sites that consistently surface in WSES research. Testing the Web site against an institution's target audience is the only way to tell if it works for them. WSES Methodology WSES is a quantitative study that provides an accurate assessment of a college Web site's effectiveness with prospective students.