The home pages on university web sites aren't created overnight.

Lots of thought goes into the design, look and message of a .edu homepage, the first impression most folks these days will have of a university.

Some dazzle with high-tech graphics, video or photography. Others inundate you with information. Some play to the sports fan by promoting Big State U's latest national champion.

But do they do what people really need?

That's the question raised now by a simple but quite telling cartoon penned by Randall Munroe, whose web comic is called "xkcd."

Here's the cartoon.

Get it?

As Inside Higher Ed reports, the cartoon has reverberated across American higher education.

While universities try to pack tons of information into their home pages, are they doing anything more than simply muddying the waters?

Does a prospective student really care about Big State U's mission statement, or the latest press release trumpeting Professor SmartyPants' new lab discovery?

Or do they simply want, as the cartoon suggests, a decent map and a mailing address?