JMU.edu Website Redesign: Round 2

On August 14th, I posted an article asking for critiques of the redesigned JMU.edu site. I got six great, detailed responses of what people thought. JMU has responded to the feedback from everyone and has made some revisions to the website. Are you satisfied with what has been done? Do they need to make more edits? The readability has greatly increased thanks to the purple type, but was there anything else you wanted to see done? I personally miss the emphasis on 'Be the change', but that's just because I loved the idea in general.

Incoming JMU Honors Students Set World Record For Blowing

Yesterday evening, nearly 6 months after a failed attempt at breaking the world record for number of people whistling at the same time, sophomore honors student Bryan Brady led over 200 people gathered in Grafton-Stovall Theater in whistling "The Star-Spangled Banner" several times to complete the task of breaking that record. The group was made up of incoming freshmen honors students and their parents who made the trek over from Shenandoah Hall (the newest residence hall on campus located beside Chesapeake Hall), along with JMU staff. Bryan had attempted this in the Spring, but couldn't find enough interested people. Here, he had a captive audience that was perfect to do the job. Who doesn't want to set a world record their first day on campus? Some stats from the DNR:

According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the 200-plus whistlers were enough to break the record for "the most people whistling at the same time." The current record was set by Cauet and Virgin Radio in Paris on Dec. 12, when 125 people whistled together.

The record should be verified in a few weeks, according to organizers.

Anybody else want to break some records in the name of JMU? I'll keep a running list going, so get started!

DNR: Blowing Into Town

JMU.com Website Redesign

As I'm sure many of you have noticed, JMU recently redesigned their website. Now, so far I've heard mostly negative reviews. As a graphic designer and web designer, I wouldn't necessarily disagree, but we're going to do things a bit differently than the normal news story about this. Instead of just saying, "It sucks," how about we do an actual critique of the redesign. Let's keep this constructive and hopefully if we have some good ideas, they'll take them into consideration. I'll save my comments for later, as I want to hear your comments first. You can write pros and cons, give examples of websites you think they should model it off of...just be specific. Comments can range from the look of the site, to the information given, to the way the navigation works. Keep in mind all comments are moderated, so just writing words like ugly, horrible, terrible, (insert other choice words), or even "I like it" won't be published. I want to know WHY you like it or don't like it. This is about a website for an institution of higher learning after all. So let's hear it...

Trailer Truck Crashes Into Rockingham Hall

File this under the "Wait....what?!" category. On Friday (8/1) afternoon, John Wodecki, 79, of Centereach, N.Y., went to switch lanes on his way south on I-81. He apparently didn't see the 2009 International tractor-trailer driven by James Melton, 52, of Wytheville. The push veered Melton over the median, through the northbound lane, up a hill, through a fence, up another hill, and into the side of Rockingham Hall. I enjoyed this comment on the DNR's website: "Ever driven a semi up a hill at 60mph? #%&@ gets confusing." While it does seem crazy that it went so far and still couldn't stop, one has to take into consideration the weight that the semi could have been pulling, the fact that he was trying to slow down on grass, and the possibility that the initial hit from Wodecki's car could have messed up the internals of the engine or the drivetrain making it harder to slow down or steer.


Luckily, there was only one other car involved in the accident - David Walker, 54, of Houston - and there were no life-threatening injuries. Melton was transferred to UVA, while Wodecki was treated at RMH and released. In addition, it's a great thing that this happened in the summer while students were not living in the residence hall or things could have been much worse. The truck and both cars were totaled, and it looked like 2 rooms in Rockingham Hall had significant damage, but things could have easily been more damaging. A construction company has already been contacted to have the repairs done by the time the new students move in.




DNR article
HFD photos