I haven’t found any positively-one-hundred-percent correct answer why most of Indonesian universities’ sites do not arrange their menus in a simply usage-oriented manner? That is, why don’t they just be like American or English universities’ sites that highlight only some menus on their first page (home) and let the rest be sub menus.
As a concrete example, you can go to this site, and you’ll find that only “Prospective Students”, “Current Students”, “Admission”, “Visitors” on its first page. They are among the most frequently clicked menus. That is, they’re the major reason why other people open this website.
Meanwhile, in most of Indonesian universities. You’ll find many menus on the first page of each university site. I just said one university name randomly and this site flashed into my mind. You can find “Accreditation Status”, “Achievements,” “Scholarships” and all on the first site. We can say that this way people won’t have to click too many times to get any information; the first page can show you to a way to certain part. Those first pages are too crowded with information. Instead of showing only the most frequently clicked menus, they provide almost all on the first page.
Well, I guess, it’s because website for Indonesian universities functions more as a media to introduce their institution. Therefore, they provide as many information about their profile: the number of students, the head of certain bureaus and offices. Only several universities’ sites expands their usage more than just a media to introduce their institution, but also as an online media for various services, such as, academic information system, online admission process, campus webmail, media of propagating information, etc.
However, still they are hesitate to clean their first page into a more compact page consisting of only the most frequently needed services, that is, the most frequently clicked menus. Sometime their webmasters realize that, but campus authorities feel introducing their university is among the most important reason why they build a website. Is it true? Only god knows.
