PC1

Hey, I'm working on a critique of this site, it's the site for lawyers (solicitors) in Ireland. The design is about 5 years old and I know it needs an overhaul but I'm interested in what people think - in particular what ways to communicate with members and student lawyers who are taking courses via e-learning. I'll try to add more to this soon. P.

Alex Rehm

Hiya,

I think the amount of links on the left hand navigation may be quite a bit overpowering at first, though the information you provide is clearly useful.

• The homepage itself however is very "boxy" and not very user-friendly due to the fact that there is a lot of information, but not really visually appealing. I think you could look into imagery, clearer spacing without the use of tables and more importantly more descriptive content per item where applicable (such as "employment opportunities" and "lifelong learning")
• One thing I picked up on is your lack of using any indication of what a PDF link is (a good article about PDF accessibility and usability was written here). I would look at that and improve your site in regards to that.
• The longer I look at the site the more I think "does the navigation actually help or not?" I would look at other sites and see how they list their courses for example, simply to make your course navigation a lot more useable.
• I would also look at emphasising the "employment opportunities" section and in fact any information about making your students more employable, where they can find help and what opportunities there are.
• I would also restructure the navigation entirely, the important aspects are: about the society, courses, facilities, employment / student information, contact information, useful / related information, news, events - followed by less important things such as the foundations, useful links, company formations, history, .... you get the picture. I think once you worked out a clearer navigational structure the layout will follow from there

Hope the above makes sense. Overall you need to look at your navigation first, it does need an overhaul into clearer, bite-sized bits, structured by what a potential student / employee would be looking for. I would also look at your call to actions such as "contact us" or "apply here" and make them a lot more visible and easier to navigate to. I would also compare your site with UK university sites / college sites or German academy sites to get a feel for how course information and navigation are usually displayed.

Hope this helps,
ALEX

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Alexander Rehm - Web Architect
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