UniversityTwig.com – A Platform for Students to Search for Universities in US or UK, Compare Fees and Earn Money

4 thoughts on “UniversityTwig.com – A Platform for Students to Search for Universities in US or UK, Compare Fees and Earn Money”

1. The blue link for university twig above on StartUpLift does not take you to the website.

   1) Look around the home page – what is your initial impression of what you see?
   Well the top of my browser tells me more than the homepage does. That University twig is for university and college reviews, writing articles and study abroad. However, not everyone will read the description on the top of the browser window. This needs to be clearly stated on your homepage. My initial impression tells me that this is not a premium site. I wish your “User signup box” with the guy and the chalk was a higher quality pic. It just looks like it is from a NES game in the 80’s.

   2) Think of something you want to find on this website. Now try to find it. Did you find what you were looking for? Was anything confusing?

   I tried searching for my university in a search and nothing came up. Your database does not contain enough information.
   3) Are you encouraged to (create a new account, subscribe, sign up for a free trial, etc.)? Can you tell us why (or why not)?
   Since I could not locate my school on your site, it tells me that your site is not comprehensive enough to meet my needs, and I am not encouraged to use it.

   4) Go to search engine of your choice and find one other company that offers a similar service. Compare the two companies. Which on do you prefer? Why?

   I’m sorry to say that I don’t need to do a search engine comparison to tell you that your site has a long way to go. I am absolutely positive that I can find a competitor that offers way more than your site and looks more premium. Remember you get what you put into it. If you spend little for your website graphics and design (and have no background in this) then you will not have a premium looking site.
   5) Will you suggest this site to any student? if yes why? if no(why not?)
   Not as is. If you improved your user interface, graphics and content, i would.

   6)what changes would you have like to be done on the site or what will you have like to be added?
   7) Please share any additional feedback/comments you may have.

   I think you need to improve your website offerings to be able to compete with other websites.

2. 1)      Look around the home page – what is your initial impression of what you see?
   When I first entered the site it was a little hard to figure out what your site was about beyond the obvious universities. I would like to see a clear head and not just what I see on the video screen. The home page has way to much white space and the scrolling section is too fast. I think if you are going to have information scrolling it only needs to be one are because then it seems like too  much to look at. The little box with the man pointing has the word university cut off. I thought this site was about just reviewing universities and now I see that you can earn money. This info needs to be front and center somewhere and the video needs to back up that info. What photos are supposed to be on the homepage? If you not going to have a photo there than simply clear that space until you get something.
   2)      Think of something you want to find on this website. Now try to find it. Did you find what you were looking for? Was anything confusing?
   I tried looking up the university that I attended and I was unable to find it. If I am unable to do so then this site would be of no use to me. Perhaps you should have a section to add your university if it is not listed and allow people to take it from there. Obviously you need to expand your list.
   3)      Are you encouraged to (create a new account, subscribe, sign up for a free trial, etc.)? Can you tell us why (or why not)?
   If my school was listed I would like to create a new account. I couldn’t see subscribing or signing up for a free trial for this site. Especially when you can go the university main page and most of the information you need.
   4)      Go to search engine of your choice and find one other company that offers a similar service. Compare the two companies. Which one do you prefer? Why?
   I get the premise of your site but it seems to be centered by the fact that money is offered. How does one attract readers other than someone wanting more information on that university? I could see users going to read articles about universities that have no interest just for fun.
   5)      Will you suggest this site to any student? if yes why? if no(why not?)
   I would not suggest this website from what I have seen so far.
   6)      What changes would you have like to be done on the site or what will you have like to be added?
   I think you need a more professional layout and precise direction to you website. Your scrolling section is off because it leaves part of the previous section still seen and I as I stated before it’s too fast. Not much about your site has an academic feel to it. It ultimately seems like another way to make money than a place to find credible information about picking a school.
   7) Please share any additional feedback/comments you may have.
   I would love to see university logos, students, picture of campus life, poll, surveys, anything to draw me into look at school. Search by: state, major, region and etc. One of the articles talked about budgets , so an easy to find topic search would be nice. If you are going to include other than just university review then highlight that on your site making it another focal point as to why your site is so helpful.

3. Using Mac OS 107.3 with Safari and Firefox
    
   Please use firefox
    
   No www in the link, just https://universitytwig.com
    
   1) Look around the home page – what is your initial impression of what you see?
    
   Images / pre-video image on homepage look a bit ‘blurry’. 
    
   Site looks rather plane, with not much to catch the eye. Too much white space. Nothing to really tell me where I would want to start to find information. Nor is there anything to tell me what your site is about. Initial impression would be that the site may even be an online university.
    
   2) Think of something you want to find on this website. Now try to find it. Did you find what you were looking for? Was anything confusing?
    
   The search bar could be better highlighted–it is currently a small font tab under the menu bar.
    
   Didn’t like the search engine. Having to write in the full university name made it frustrating. I noted that I was about to search a number of universities and find them through the search engine that are not listed under the ‘University’ profile tab link. Make a more intuitive search that allows partial searches (i.e.: searching Yale instead of having to type Yale University), city/state location search (i.e.: search for universities in California).
    
   Having to return ‘home’ every time I wanted to search is a turn off to the site. Have the search link available on every page.
    
   3) Are you encouraged to (create a new account, subscribe, sign up for a free trial, etc.)? Can you tell us why (or why not)?
   No, I am not–this is mostly because I am finished university and do not live in a geographical area covered by the site. Also, I do not like using FireFox.
    
   The question of the validity and objectiveness of the reviews. Your site is relying on experience, which, while it does provide some inside into the university, doesn’t objectively examine the quality of education of that school in relation to the overall national averages (i.e.: it doesn’t compare how that university compares to all the other universities). It is like someone who has only ever driven one brand of car saying it is one of the best cars around in ride and driving experience, but without ever having experienced driving another car.
    
   4) Go to search engine of your choice and find one other company that offers a similar service. Compare the two companies. Which on do you prefer? Why?
    
   While there is no site that I can readily find that offers a similar service, I know that most western countries have news/education/business magazines that do extensive university reviews that compare prices, program offers, student satisfaction, after-graduate success of students, etc. I would suggest getting your hands on these reviews and using them as an example to build your site.
    
   5) Will you suggest this site to any student? if yes why? if no(why not?)
    
   At the moment, no. There is little content currently on the site (understandable, as it is a Beta site). However, the question is is how you are going to build up your data base, and where you are going to obtain your information from.
    
   Also, it is not only limited in its current content, but also in its scope–only universities from the UK and US are included, and none from Australia or Canada, or other countries.
    
   6)what changes would you have like to be done on the site or what will you have like to be added?
    
   Content: you certainly need to expand it, and in expanding it, also develop better 
    
   There are a number of visual aspects to the site that make it appear amateurish/rushed. Outside the large amount of white space that makes it tiring to look at, there are alignment issues. In ‘comparing’ universities, the alignment for ‘Choose One Option’ ‘study online / study on campus’, and the next button do not line up.
    
   You do not have any ‘terms of use’ when doing your search to compare universities.
    
   7) Please share any additional feedback/comments you may have.
    
   Some spelling and font issues. (You have Usee in your ‘Terms of Use’, you have a blank bullet space in your ‘about us’. A few other spelling errors).
    
    
   I don’t like Firefox, hence why I used both Safari and Firefox to compare any differences that there may be between the two platforms.
    
   While there are no visual differences, the tab menus do not drop down on Safari for ‘Review’ and ‘Univesrity’.
    
    
   Make the site friendly for other web browsers to use.

   Finished Monday July 16th 2012 at 1:05PM EST 

4. Thank you for all your feedbacks and suggestion, we are working very hard on getting all of your suggestions working by August 2012.
    
   –  UniversityTwig.com Team

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