Comparative studies of university web sites?

[Prentiss Riddle]

[This is slightly off-topic for Web4Lib -- that is, it falls into a
superset of Web4Lib's issues.  Apologies and thanks for bearing with me.]


Hi.  It's time for the periodic overhaul of our university web site
(we've just about reached the limit of what can be done with small
incremental changes -- insert imagery here of straws breaking camels'
backs, tectonic plates shifting as villagers flee rivers of lava,
etc.).  I'm starting the process by looking around a bit at the
"competition".

Does anyone know of any good online or printed comparative studies of
university web sites?

I know of just a couple, both dated and of limited scope:

  http://www.ilt.columbia.edu/academic/classes/TU5020/projects/he/higher_ed.html
    (A student project from 1995 which looked primarily at content and
    administration, but not structure or design.)

  http://is.rice.edu/~riddle/cwiscomp.html
    (My own quite informal notes from 1996 comparing 18 sites.)

If you can recommend better or more current studies, please let me
know.  If I get any useful responses, I will summarize to the list.
Thanks.

-- Prentiss Riddle ("aprendiz de todo, maestro de nada") riddle at rice.edu
-- Webmaster, Rice University / http://is.rice.edu/~riddle
-- Home office: 2002-A Guadalupe St. #285, Austin, TX 78705 / 512-323-0708