Two days ago was the beginning of classes at the University of Illinois. As someone who works on campus (in a department in the College of ACES), I witness the hustle and bustle of students getting to their new classes especially the freshmen who are learning the ropes and getting used to the ways of the U of I.
Illinois Baseball’s new web design
With the new school year, come new changes. The University of Illinois Athletics Department have redesigned the web site for Fighting Illini sports including of course Illinois Baseball. It’s pretty slick and modern and keeping up with web trends. Its slideshow and flash video delivery is reminiscent of what I’ve seen on Major League Baseball’s web site.
I’m not a web designer by trade but that doesn’t stop me from looking at web sites with a critical eye. Also, though it may sound strange coming from someone in a business that is ever-changing, I don’t always like change. I immediately tense up when I see when one of my favorite web sites has drastically changed their format. I then need to find out, “Will I be able to get the information I want because of the changes or in spite of them?”
My fears have been allayed, though. One click of the “Headlines” link and I get a nice, simple list of the news releases with corresponding links. The RSS feed is there… very handy.
Some of the simple things I do like are its new header logo. The blocky “Illinois Baseball” just looks cool. They have a rotating banner at the top with some cool images including recent Illini draftees (nice touch!) and a backdrop photo of victory pile of players (if I’m not mistaken, it’s the one after the first Ohio State game).
A few of the newer changes from last year I like are the incorporation of some social networking features. If you wish, you can follow Illinois Baseball news on Twitter and Facebook. They’ve also included a Twitter window toward the bottom of the page so you can see what’s being said about the team.
So, thumbs up on the redesign. In spite of myself, I like it. The multimedia, admittedly is pretty cool and I still have access to the substance I crave.