Bethel University

How does a university with an eclectic array colleges, schools and programs speak with a unified voice?
Bethel is a Christian university serving a wide array of students. Before this project the University communicated with each of their prospective student audiences (undergrad, grad, continuing ed and seminary) with wholly stand-alone marketing content.

We brought coherence to the University message, creating high-level themes each College could articulate in ways that connected with their audiences. The site architecture was crafted to provide each user with intuitive paths to relevant content and the design provides a forward-thinking set of interfaces built to facilitate action.

In the year since launch Bethel has seen a surge is site traffic and usage. External site traffic is up by 75% (equating to more than a million additional site visitors every six months), page views are up in excess of 90% and the average time visitors spend on the site is up by nearly 50%.

Visit:  www.bethel.edu

Project undertaken with mStoner • Design by Naz Hamid & Kevin Rieg

ADA

Can a website effectively serve a trio of disparate audiences?
The previous ADA homepage was essentially a routing page that pushed visitors into one of three content silos. Using research commissioned by the ADA along with insights from stakeholder interviews and website analytics I re-architected the website to create a single, content-rich destination that serves all audiences.

The needs of each audience are met via a coherent and flexible set of content-types and templates. And key tasks and information priorities are reflected in both the overall site architecture and individual page layouts.

We conducted an array of usability testing exercises with both dentists and the public. Testing included early-stage assessments of wireframes as well as functional testing on a private beta-site. In both rounds of testing overall navigability and usability improved dramatically.

Visit:  www.ADA.org

Project undertaken with mStoner • Design by Naz Hamid & Laurel Hechanova

Middlesex School

How fully can a website convey the vibrance of life on campus?
Middlesex encourages each student to explore their academic, athletic, artistic and extra-curricular interests. Instead of focusing on a single talent MX students are asked to stretch, to develop their existing talents while discovering new ones. The result is a vibrant community of well-rounded students achieving interesting and unexpected things. We focused our efforts on capturing the feel of that community and sharing it via the web.

“RE:MX” is a curated feature that showcases thematic content, updated weekly. “Life 360” is a running ticker of ephemera collected and submitted by the MX community, updated continually. “Find Your Promise” is an interactive feature allowing users to explore the paths taken by MX students and alumni, updated sporadically.

Visit:  www.mxschool.edu

Project undertaken with mStoner • Design by Laurel Hechanova

Public Square

How does a university keep hundreds of researchers in dozens of locations on the same page?
With faculty and researchers spread across 20 campus locations it’s difficult to fully grasp the work happening across the University. I worked with Penn State to concieve, sketch and ultimately build a website that aggregates content from each campus (as well as the communities they serve) in order to efficiently coordinate effort, disseminate information and engage the community.

The site also incorporates social features that enable the public to interact with content through explorations, discussions and contributions.

What’s Next?  The website is currently in private-beta and will publicly launch soon.

Project undertaken with mStoner • Design by Laurel Hechanova

William & Mary

What happens when you cross Thomas Jefferson with Jon Stewart?
We combined the sensibilities of WM’s two most favorite alumni to strike a tone that presents the second-oldest college in the nation in a way that’s both venerable and refreshingly irreverent. We also focused attention on WM’s academic departments, highlighting the interesting work happening every day.

Response to the website from all audiences has been extremely positive. Applications from highly-qualified and informed prospective students continue to rise while web traffic to recruitment-focused pages of the website remains very high. Internally, over 500 content contributors have been trained to use the College’s content management system and are actively managing individual areas of the website.

Tangent:  Jon Stewart featured the site in a segment poking fun at the College’s mascot.

Visit:  www.wm.edu

Project undertaken with mStoner • Design by Naz Hamid & Laurel Hechanova

College Speak

Are rankings really the best way to choose a college?
In a college admissions environment driven by rankings, College Speak (a project conceived by The Education Conservancy) provides a unique and unbiased alternative path to college selection. Instead of consulting the rankings, high school students provide information about themselves and generate personalized rankings. These rankings are unique to each user, based on learning environment, range of programs, location, campus community and overall fit.

I worked with The Education Conservancy to define, sketch and architect the website; focusing on content and tools that help students, parents and guidance counselors navigate the college admissions process.

Then what? The EC partnered with The College Board, eventually bringing a rather different site to life .

Project undertaken with mStoner • Design by Chris DeFrancesco