It’s fall again, which means university studies start up. At my beloved institute of learning, registration for courses is done via the Web, as with the other universities in the Helsinki area. This can be quite an ordeal, what with the registration software crashing, people’s course choices being erased, and whatnot. Good times are had by all and sundry. What really doesn’t make it any easier is the sheer impossibility of finding course information on the school website.
Ok, you know how you have these few simple logical rules for designing a web site? Like “Most people would appreciate a single-click approach to getting where they want to go” or “Things that have the same subject matter should probably go in the same place in the site?” You know, just basic things that make life so much easier for people surfing the net and trying to find information?
Well, it seems that whoever is responsible for making such simple logical choices at this university wrote down a very detailed list of simple logical rules and then wrote “NOT LIKE THIS” in red felt pen over every page, so as not to err even slightly on the side of coherence. BUT ONLY IN THE FINNISH PART OF THE PAGES.
A simple task: to find, in Finnish, the location of the Study Guide 2005-06, which has information on courses, lecturing times, etc., and which could certainly be considered important information for knowledge-hungry students. Dear Dopers, you may follow along and click with me as I unravel for you the bottomless pit of hell that is our university’s website. It’ll be like an interactive storybook, except for the part when you want to tear your hair out and attempt to open your wrists with a dull pencil. (Although with some storybooks, that hasn’t been too far either.) So let’s go!
“Hmm. Study Guide. It’s probably under Studying. Let’s see.”
click
“Hmm. Well, now I have three options which seem most likely: Lectures, Study services, or Information on studying. Hey, that last one sounds pretty promising. That might be it.”
click
“Umm…nope. All I get is stuff about how to enroll in foreign language classes. This would be useful, except that I still don’t have the actual course information on the foreign language classes. Let’s go back.”
click
“Okay, Study services, that might be the right place…”
click
“Nope, what I get now is stuff about the HelpDesk for computer services. Let’s go back again.”
click
“Okay, the last possible choice is Lecturing.”
click
“No! No! No! It just has some stuff about when professors have their receptions. No, no, wait… there’s something in the top left-hand corner of that tiny light-green swatch at the top of the page…”
click
“Oh, nope, that’s just information on which lecture halls the courses are being held in. Which doesn’t really help me, since I don’t know which courses I’ll be taking, since I don’t have the Study Guide2005-06 with information on courses. sigh Let’s go back again.”
click
…this continues for about twenty minutes until finally, after a perplexed e-mail to the Web people, the answer comes.
“No, no, no, you have to click on the KTM (“MSc”) tab at the bottom of the first page! Silly auRa. How could you not figure that out?”
How indeed? Why, indeed, would I think, even for a moment, that if I intended to find information on studying economics this fall, the portion of the website that I should visit would be the “MSc” section, instead of the “Studying” section?
So off we go again.
click
“Ahh… here we go. ‘The Study Guide 2005-06 on the web’. Finally.”
click
…Wait, this is just a news item telling me that the Study Guide 2005-06 has been published on the website. Isn’t there a link to it somewhere on this page? Why, it seems almost like… no, wait, it really IS telling me to go back to the previous page and click on TWO MORE LINKS going to a completely different part of the website before I can get to the FUCKING STUDY GUIDE! WHY?! WHY IN THE EVER-LOVING FUCK CAN YOU NOT INCLUDE A DIRECT LINK FROM THE FRONT PAGE OF THE WEBSITE?!
AAAAAAAAAAAARGGGGGHHHH!!!
Now I give you the English version of the university website. Attempt the same maneuver.
“Studying? That must be it!”
Guess what?
It is.
“‘Guide for International BSc and MSc Degree Students 2005-06 available’? That must be it!”
Yes, that’s it.
“You can find the guide here.” (helpful link straight to study guide provided)
Yes, yes you can.
Why in the name of all that is good and holy can this same courtesy not be extended to the Finnish-speaking student population? Who in their twisted minds thinks that information on courses is trivial and unimportant enough that it can be hidden somewhere in the very bottom murky depths of an unbelievably complicated website structure?
My brain, it is to explode.
