University Times

Change occurs so rapidly on the Internet that 1995 to users of the World Wide Web is about equivalent to the age of dinosaurs to a geologist.

Despite that fact, 1995 was the last time that the University's website was substantially altered. But that changed this week when new Pitt homepages went on-line at www.pitt.edu.

Designed by Computing and Information Services' (CIS) web team, the new homepages have smaller graphics that use fewer bytes and so allow for the faster loading of information.

Users also can scroll down the pages to lists of schools, colleges, departments, programs, libraries, publications, student services, campuses and other major divisions of the University that they can gain immediate access to with a click.

The Pitt Site Index, as the list is known, eliminates the middle step that once stood between the University's homepage and those of its various divisions, programs and services.

"Essentially, we made up a shopping list of what we thought the pages should be," CIS web team designer Tim Kauffman said. "We wanted to reduce image sizes so that pages could load faster and we wanted easier access to some things, so we tried to shortcut access to certain information." According to Kauffman, the new homepages were approved by the Provost's Committee on the University of Pittsburgh's Presentation on the Internet and designed with input from the University community to insure as equal as possible representation on the web for each division, department and program.

Another advantage of the new homepages, according to Kit Ayars, who staffs the provost's committee, is that they can be changed easily. "The old one was real hard to change because it was all one big image," Ayars explained. "To make one little change meant redoing the whole thing." Ayars said the change means that the provost's committee on the Internet will be able to better respond to user complaints, suggestions and accolades. "We get a lot of feedback from users," Ayars said. "When you get something frequently repeated, like it takes forever to download images, clearly that has to be moved on as quickly as any University committee can move. That was the impetus behind the redesign this time."

–Mike Sajna