Hello, world.

Sure, Harvard’s still working on picking its broke ass off the floor, but as a cutting-edge research university, some expectations that it’ll keep updating according to the internet’s modern standards remain despite a total endowment fail. But after browsing through some webpages affiliated with FAS, we… well, we really wish we hadn’t. Luckily, Noice did all the dirty work to save all the Harvard kiddies some cyber-aesthetic pain.

THE BEST

School of Engineering and Applied Sciences: This one’s a no-brainer, what with all the hackers that the SEAS has on demand. With an exhaustive menu on the homepage, the site lets any idiot find anything, anywhere from research opportunities for undergraduate research as well as a complete census of the school’s demographics (74% male–again, no surprise there). Take a peek at the course website of CS50, maybe the only undergraduate class that doesn’t use a crappy my.harvard iSite (and also the only course page that embedded an LOLcat applet last year).

Anthropology: Links to sweet interviews with awesome faculty! Cool header! Sans serif font! Very noice indeed.

Literature: Shocker, right? But entering the Lit site proves to be a candied orgasm for the eyes with rainbow books as the background (gay pride, anyone?). Not only that, the department proves it’s not just about lofty and obscure theory and academia, as shown by its extremely functional, minimalist menu on the bottom, linking visitors to the department’s degree requirements easily and its Ph.D. dissertations pompously. But after seeing the quality of the site, we’ll forgive them.

See the sites for sore eyes after the jump.

THE REST

Visual & Environmental Studies: Always one-upping the academics who sit in Widener theorizing but never acting, those artsy-fartsy laborers in the Carpenter Center know how to combine pleasing color schemes, easy-to-browse organization, and plain and simple informational display into one straightforward site. With their front page constantly updated on upcoming exhibits and lectures given by visiting speakers, it’s easy to keep updated with departmental happenings. And if not for that reason, checking out some sweet art produced by resident professors isn’t a bad way to spend a night procrastinating on the internet. But surprisingly, VES’s web design skills weren’t as impressive as we expected. Two words: ARIAL BOLD. </vomit>

History of Art and Architecture: After a total revamp from last year’s arguably more modern, minimalist interface, the new HAA site appears too crowded according to a VES concentrator, not scarce enough by an economics concentrator, and not “philosophically stringent upon the work’s emotive display and discourse on contemporary aestheticism” by their own standards. In all seriousness, it seems bizarre that HAA would allow so much “anti” white space. But when in doubt, perceive it HAA-style–attribute it as an expression of pain.

THE GROTESQUE

Folklore & Mythology: Scroll all the way to the bottom to see the not-so-hidden Apple logo. Really? They couldn’t find anyone to design a website? And someone who didn’t think Microsoft Word clip art was legitimate graphic design? We’d say that’s completely heinous, but we didn’t mention yet that the front page consists only of American Heritage Dictionary definitions of the department’s title. The new FML: Folklore and Mythology is Lame.

Romance Languages and Literature: “Hey, Grandma Erma, want to make a website? What, you don’t know HTML? That’s OK, you can just draw something up on paper; we’ll scan it in.” At least it’s not as bad as the World’s Ugliest Webpage.