web critique #3- saic portal

pros:
of course there are many pros to this portal. it is essential for students here at SAIC. not all colleges i have been to have had a portal or one with relevant resources. right away your email is visible. that's helpful for me because i do not want to miss any important messages from professors or classmates. important announcements are displayed for your immediate attention as well. some of the announcements or more critical than others but none the less it is a great feature. i really enjoy how events for both the school and museum are posted on the main page. it's nice not to have to retrieve the museum's home page to get this information. the courses tab reveals all your current and past courses. at first it was a little difficult for me to navigate through my courses using the files, photos, contacts, etc links. when used correctly, gaining and spreading information through your courses home page is very useful. events calendar and public programs tabs offer a lot of information, which is great. the academic resources tab i feel offers all the useful information we need when inquiry about the library, equipment, and training resources.

cons:
i mentioned above that the clearly visible email box was very useful, but i have found that i receive many irrelevant emails. in the past i have over looked important emails mixed in with others i wanted to ignore. possibly there is a way to sort these emails as they come in. i am not sure. one major issue i have with this site is that some of the links offered in the tools and services tabs and very user unfriendly. i find it quite annoying to have to log into another site for my academic information or job hunting information. the self-service site and the career development website are separate from the portal. i wish it was all obtainable on the portal. when first using the portal i found myself getting frustrated having to use different passwords to gain this information. also, when i contacted help/support about these sites i would get a very late response if any. today i am still trying to log onto the career site grrrrrr. and why wouldn't the self-service site be under the services tab and not the tools?? on top of every page is the helpful hints bar. maybe mine does not work but every time i type in a keyword, question, etc. nothing appears. i am still waiting for help/support to email me back about that...sigh...

as for the design of the portal it is simple, clean, and easy to navigate. since we are all artists using this portal i wish there was a little more character and color. possibly that is something that can be created under the customize me tab, which i have yet to explore.