NYFA Critique

Every year, more and more people see the value of education. They finish high school and go on to college. Some of them actually go and try out their chosen campus before deciding to enroll. Most of them however, check the internet.

College or University sites are one of the most accessed websites on the internet. They have to look good and be user-friendly at the same time. A College site has to catch attention and to exude class because it is the gateway of the school to the online world. A website has to have a clear purpose, its content should be easy to understand, and it should be easy to navigate. I found one site and I believe that it is really well made. Well, let's head on to:

The New York Film Academy site!

As you can see, the NYFA has a good website. While it may not look as professionally done as most University websites in the States, I can assure you that it does its job quite perfectly.

The criteria are Form (40%), Content (40%), Speed(10%), and Accessibility(10%).

Form
As you can see, the layout is very easy on the eyes. It has an old school feel with it. The letters are large and easy to read, the colors do not clash, and it has all the basic information about the school at the front page. Meaning that you don't have to go to another page just to find out what the school's address or telephone number is.

Content
Everything is easily accessible through the links on top. Click on Film School Programs and it shows you a page where all the information about the Film courses they offer including a really short syllabus. Click on apply online and you'll even be able to apply online without the fuss. You can even watch sample works(videos) of the students. You can even apply for financial aid online!

Speed
The loading speed of the website is faster than most websites I visit. The high resolution videos even download much faster than YouTube videos. Speed is a huge factor in University/College websites. After all, who wants to browse a really slow website?

Accessibility
I tried accessing this site using 4 different browsers. They all worked fine. None of those "optimized for IE7 only" crap. I tried them on IE7, IE8 beta, Firefox 3, Opera, and Safari. Everything loaded fast and beautifully.