University Business - January 2012 - (Page 51)

A Home[page] for All 5 tips to ease website redesigns By Ann McClure A n institutional website is not only often the first contact a prospective student has with a college or university but also a constant landing point for current students, faculty, and staff. “We looked at trends and research and realized that the website is very important to recruiting,” says Beverly Golden, director of marketing and communications at The University of Texas at Tyler. “It might be the first thing people see about your institution.” Creating a site that will serve all those audiences is a careful balancing act. Internal demands make it inevitable that a website will eventually drift toward preferring one group over another. “It’s a blessing and a curse that you can’t do this cookie cutter,” says Stephanie Geyer, associate vice president of web strategy services at Noel-Levitz. “Every school has a different audience, culture, and location. You can’t just build a template and say, ‘this will work for every institution.’ ” But there are best practices to observe. When it’s time to correct course, keep these tips in mind. Alumni can better navigate Loyola U New Orleans’ site now. 1. Make surveys and focus groups your friends. “There is nothing like show-and-tell with the market segments who will use the tool,” advises Geyer. “They might not understand what we mean by a button, the word we use, or what it is for.” Information gathering can be organic or labor intensive. At Montgomery College (Md.), student Michelle Brinks decided to redesign the Communication Arts Technology Department website based on questions she fielded working as the administrative assistant. “She had done surveys without realizing it,” relates instructor Sheri German. Feedback received after Friends University (Kan.) launched a redesigned website universitybusiness.com revealed the important fact that the request-for-information form was too hard to find, says Roman Rodriguez, web manager and graphic designer. They also have had a great response to the live chat feature they launched in September, shares Rodriguez. “We had a student from out of state apply online during a chat session,” he says. The web team at Loyola University New Orleans had volunteers from each user group complete eight tasks on laptops outfitted with monitoring software that tracked mouse movements and recorded their voice comments, says Crystal Forte, web content strategist. The exercise showed that, while the new site worked well for current and prospective students, improvements could be made for alumni visitors. group have a stronger voice in the outcome. “We were concerned about missing the mark and developing a website that was internally driven rather than providing information,” reflects Jim Blakeslee, CIO of Moraine Park Technical College (Wisc.). “We realized there is no department that owns either the portal or the .edu site.” A web content committee was established to guide the redesign and continues to keep the website up to date. Create a road map by placing as many challenges and their answers on the table before the project begins, advises Ed Macko, creative director for higher education with Pipitone Group, a marketing company. In addition to senior campus leaders, a steering committee should include both traditional and online students, says Mike Matthews, vice president of managed services for SunGard Higher Education. After all, these groups interact with the website in different ways. He suggests keeping stakeholders on task by presenting options, then giving deadlines so people have to make a decision. The steering committee at Assumption College (Mass.) was responsible for setting priorities and then communicating those priorities to the campus community. “We’ve found that, when websites are bureaucratic, it is because people got into the idea of being the center of their universe,” shares Jacee Brown, web communications director at Loyola. She has found impulses can be controlled by having everyone consider the student perspective before beginning a project. 2. Maintain control by using a steering committee. To prevent a web design from getting derailed, it is important not to let any one 3. Choose a primary audience. “We’ve always known our main audience is prospective students,” says Brown of Loyola. “If we don’t have students we don’t have a January 2012 | 51  http://www.universitybusiness.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of University Business - January 2012

University Business - January 2012
Contents
Editor's Note
College Index
Ad Index
Behind the News
Human Resources
Campus CFo
Getting Carded
Choosing telepresence
boosting the bottom line
Printer Purchase Pointers
Money Matters
Viewpoint
End Note

University Business - January 2012

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