Convenience: are you providing it?

ABSTRACT

Gone are the days of trucking over to an Academic Computing Help Desk to obtain an account for sending/receiving email, creating web pages and doing numerical research. At Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), we are focusing on web-based services for our students, faculty and staff. VCU is an urban, commuter-based university where most of its students come to campus to take a class or attend an event and then return to their off-campus homes.

During the past 5-10 years we have focused on supplying web-based services so that students do not have to unnecessarily come to campus. Several years ago our online parking sales eliminated the need to stand in line to buy semester parking decals. This service kicked off our e-commerce system, which now brings in nearly $1 million each month.

In general, the University is looking for ways to provide services to its students, faculty and staff that are independent of time and location and are more cost and time effective. This presentation will outline our method for developing online services, show the services that are currently available and under development and discuss some of the lessons learned developing web-based applications.

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.5 INFORMATION INTERFACES AND PRESENTATION (I.7)
      H.5.2 User Interfaces (D.2.2, H.1.2, I.3.6)
          Subjects: User-centered design

Additional Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.5 INFORMATION INTERFACES AND PRESENTATION (I.7)
      H.5.3 Group and Organization Interfaces
          Subjects: Web-based interaction
      H.5.4 Hypertext/Hypermedia
          Subjects: Navigation; User issues

General Terms:
Design, Experimentation, Management, Measurement, Performance, Reliability, Standardization

Keywords:
applications, convenience, service, usability, web