Digital Communications Staff
Since February 2011, College Communications has added three new digital communications staff. All three staff members are involved in the redesign of the Davidson Web site in addition to the core project team, staff from Information Technology Services, Admission and Financial Aid, College Relations, and input at key points from Web Advisory Group members.
Doug Minor
Director of Digital Communications
(704) 894-2539
http://www.linkedin.com/in/dougminor
Arrived at Davidson in August 2011
Christine Goodwin
Associate Director of Digital Communications
(704) 894-2655
http://www.linkedin.com/in/christinegoodwin
Arrived at Davidson in May 2012
Gary BartholomewAssistant Director for Multimedia Production
(704) 894-2447
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/gary-bartholomew/7/3b8/9bb
Arrived at Davidson in February 2011
Web Strategy
Based on what we heard and learned during discovery, we worked with BarkleyREI to develop the following goals and supporting strategies for the redesign project.
Web Redesign Goals
- Showcase the brand, identity, and mission of Davidson College
- Implement a markedly improved Web presence and supporting technologies
- Increase support of the college among key constituents
Key Strategies
Communicate Davidson Mission and Core Values
- Develop core themes
- create an overarching content framework. Examples: Unique Experiences, Innovation, Research, Civic Engagement
- Establish and maintain consistency
- Create a look and feel illustrative of the future of Davidson
- Replace standalone, single-purpose microsites and templates with flexible, multi-use templates
- Provide means for content expiration and review
- Establish a workflow that promotes consistency
- Technical
- Design
- Marketing/voice
- Address misconceptions
- Use the themes, in part, to overcome the most common misconceptions
Enliven the Davidson Experience
- Spotlight experiences
- Ensure that themes throughout the site directly and indirectly provide user with an accurate portrayal
- Focus on student and graduate achievements, faculty engagement and athletics
- Syndicate spotlights site-wide and position for each audience where needed
- Reveal culture
- Create an interactive environment that engages the prospective audience and engages them with the world of Davidson
- Use news and events to support goals
- Integrate social media to add authenticity and student perspective
- Enhance content
- Use videos and rich imagery site-wide to engage users
- Leverage technology to bring users a step closer to a live-visit experience (Virtual Tour / Spotlight hybrid)
- Create a centralized news, events, and social media hub and leverage content logically site-wide
- Improve the “sticky-ness” of the site
Tailor to the Needs of Various Audiences
- Architect for primary goals
- Promote ease of use among all audiences
- Group audience-related content together to simplify each audience’s experience
- Use callouts and design cues to get these users to convert
- Use interactive components to improve scannability of content (tabs, accordions, etc.)
- Write per audience
- Reassess copy for each main section
- Themes and stories will be shared site-wide, but the tone and perspective will be different
- Write appropriately for each audience
- Marketing messages for prospective students
- Professional tone for current students, alumni and faculty
- Streamline internally
- Define where current student information lives (Inside Davidson)
- Develop a communication portal for students for marketing and communications
- Improve the design and usability of Inside Davidson
- Engage and simplify for alumni
- Streamline the donation steps
- Bring callouts to the top
- Create content for alumni that encourages repeat visits
- Welcome alumni as participants
Improve the Usability of the Site
- Develop to current standards
- Design for increased screen width
- Ensure W3C and ADA compliance
- Use organization features to simplify navigation
- Cross-device experiences
- Develop site to be compatible with tablets and mobile
- Maintain consistent brand, message and content across devices
- Simplify CMS interface
- Documentation and support will help users make updates effectively and often
- Modular features will allow more flexibility within the template set
- Pre-planned features will permit a rich experience while enforcing a consistent brand message
- Use APIs where available
Discovery Outcomes
BarkleyREI was on campus for multiple days of discovery and research February 28-29 and March 27-28. During the February discovery sessions, BarkleyREI met with multiple individuals and groups from across campus, including College Relations, Admission and Financial Aid, Student Affairs, Academic Affairs, the President, College Communications, Information Technology, Athletics, Center for Civic Engagement, Office of the Chaplain, the library, and a current student group.
All faculty and staff were invited to attend any of the multiple open-format discovery sessions moderated by BarkleyREI on March 27-28, which were held in the 900 Room and Sprinkle Room.
Common Discovery Themes
Many topics were discussed during discovery. The following themes consistently came up during BarkleyREI’s time on campus.
Improve Organization and Search
The most obvious issue currently experienced with the site (and many other higher education sites) is organization and the overall architecture of the site. Students and departments have expressed this and the desire to have better navigation and content.
- There is difficulty finding information
- Current pages are text-heavy and difficult to scan
- Search results for common terms are of poor quality
- There is confusion surrounding where certain types of information should live
- Focus the navigation on prospective students while continuing to keep other audiences top of mind
Improve Design and Identity
Another common theme is that the current design is outdated. While the interim homepage has been well-received, the site in general does not effectively illustrate the Davidson experience, nor does it meets the needs of the user from an information perspective. Likewise, the lack of CMS flexibility has lead to the creation of various WordPress and similar standalone sites that do not closely follow the brand/style established by Davidson.
- Redesign the site to communicate the essence of the Davidson Experience
- Leverage design and multimedia to engage the audience
- Use design to improve the readability, navigation, and usage across devices
Increase Flexibility
In order to prevent the fragmentation of the site, ensure the new implementation of Ingeniux has the flexibility to meet the needs of the larger audiences. The lack of customization forced users to create their own “sister-sites” in the current setup. Creating an implementation that is easier to use with built-in accommodations for multimedia and landing page needs along with training and workflow support.
- Develop templates with more advanced features that are easy to use
- Ensure training and documentation is available long-term
- Establish a workflow and support plan to ensure maintenance of the site stays consistent and high quality
Inside Davidson
There is confusion around what Inside Davidson is and should be used for. It is difficult to navigate, scan, and use for the average visitor, and it is not widely, nor consistently, adopted across the college. There are concerns about the design, organization, and redundancy (internally and in reference to the public site).
- Define the “division of responsibilities” between the public site and Inside Davidson
- Consider a revised design that makes Inside Davidson easier to use
- Improve the information architecture to make Inside Davidson more valuable as a tool
- Consider adding ability to increase the personalization of Inside Davidson.
