Here’s how out of the loop I am: I had no idea there was a market for luxury phones. But, if this isn’t an introduction, I don’t know what is. I saw an article on the TAG Heuer Meridiist in the latest issue of a certain men’s magazine (the kind with articles, not pictures, thank you very much). I couldn’t help but check out the website. Personally, I think the phone was separated at birth from the Texas Instruments TI-1200 calculator I had in the third grade. But if that’s your thing, it can be yours for just $4,849.50.
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In conjunction with our presentations during the summer of 2008 at Eduweb and CASE Europe, we have published a white paper describing a research-based approach to conducting a site audit for higher education web sites. Read More »
Everybody laughed at us. Not with us.
I’m now down to one clean shirt for at least 3 more meals in Boston. And it’s white. This is not good.
Pamela Michael, Head of Digital Media and Marketing at Imperial College London, and I had the privilege of presenting this week at Eduweb 2008 in Atlantic City. It was held at the lovely (cough, cough) Trump Marina Casino.
We shared a case study from the Imperial College London website redesign, including how we researched the needs of various audiences and created mental models that guided our designs.
Some of the key findings from our research included:
- Prospective students wished to have a better “sense of place” depicted on the website.
- What does the campus look like?
- What do the residence halls look like?
- What’s the area of London like?
- Does the reality match the reputation?
- Users wanted to have an overview of what’s going on at the College in one place - an improved events calendar encompassing everything from student events to evening classes.
- Many students told about influential people in their lives who told them about Imperial. Word of mouth is key, even for a world-leading institution.
- Users wanted an easier way to find Imperial staff, not only by name but also by department, role, and most importantly, research area.
- Once they find staff, they want to know a lot more about them – research interests, reputation, etc.
Download the presentation notes for “Listening to Our Users: How Imperial used ‘mental models’ to guide their redesign.”
I traveled to Eduweb 2008 this week in Atlantic City (Pamela Michael of Imperial College London and I gave a presentation) and saw some cool new ideas for higher education and the web. One of those is SkoolPool. It’s a Facebook application that allows:
- Colleges to create profile pages within Facebook, and
- Students to create lists of schools they’re considering, and meet other people who are going to the same school.
SkoolPool was created by Academica Group based on extensive research into the activities and interests of high school students as they explore options for college, and talk to their friends about it.
Students can add the SkoolPool app for free, obviously. Once they have it they can start building their list, and searching for other Facebook users who are considering the same schools.
Schools can sign up for a free package with a simple profile page, or spend a little more for features like events, photos, news, discussion boards etc. Even more exciting is the Trendspotter Dashboard - a feature that allows schools to track student activity for their school as well as competing schools.
From everything I can see, it looks like these guys are doing it right.
Take a look at SkoolPool
There is nothing quite like being on an island, knowing that beyond the rocky outcrop on which you stand is an extremely large expanse of water populated by colorful fish, roving boats, and the occasional nuclear submarine. It’s a good feeling to know that given a serious episode of not being able to read a map, the worst you can do is to go in a big circle and end up where you started, hopefully in time for lunch. Well, that last bit is comforting for me at least — maybe not so much my wife. Read More »
There’s been a lot of talk lately about building brand buzz in the world of corporate marketing. Now that conversation is making its way down the hallowed halls of colleges and universities across the country.
Actually, a better way of putting that would be that colleges and universities are starting to listen to the conversation that’s going on around them. In the 2007 TeensTALK study released by Stamats, almost 20% of college-bound teens said their first exposure to the college they are attending came from a friend or a relative. 25% of students say that their first “official” contact with a school is when they submit their application. Read More »
We recently hired Wes fresh off his graduation from Virginia Tech. (He insisted on wearing his cap and gown the whole first week he was here.) But just because he’s a new graduate doesn’t mean he’s wet behind the ears. Wes spent some time working at Blacksburg Electronic Village as a student, and he’s launched a few websites in his day, too. Here, he’ll be working with our production team, turning our designs into working websites. Wes has been a lot of places and he’s seen a lot of things, which probably explains his love of maps and Irish punk music. Wes is also engaged, which definitely explains why he’s searching the Internet high and low for a Flogging Molly cover version of the Wedding March. Welcome aboard, Wes!
New City Media collaborated with Rytter Design and Roanoke College to develop the theme “Classic for Tomorrow.” We adapted the statement in a new website designed to compliment marketing materials created by Bob Rytter’s team in Baltimore.
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