Responses to your comments
We thought we'd try something new for our initial response to your thoughts:
More detailed, point-by-point discussion to come in a future post.
More detailed, point-by-point discussion to come in a future post.
posted by JP at 12:57 PM
14 Comments:
I'm glad to hear that you're considering having one column on the left side instead of two. I also look forward to seeing 'University' back in the heading.
Please consider placing the university seal somewhere on the page. I know a gummy-looking stamped seal exists that appears on several publications (originally designed for Prez. Schrum's inauguration) that might look good with the paint motif.
As a side note, please don't beat up on poor Tanner Cope. He may not see eye to eye with you on the paint stroke, but his concerns are echoed by several other respondents and it would probably be good to take heed of what he had to say. Real art schools may have slightly more wacky designs but our target audience doesn't necessarily know that...
-Matt Maschino
PS. The video response was pretty good, especially considering it was your first time doing one.
Oh, my gosh, did you think we were being harsh on Tanner? We had a great conversation with him in the McCombs dining hall that really affected how we are conceptualizing this project... the fact is, he's been kind of an unwitting guiding light of the project. We've been particularly attentive to his comments.
-- Jason
Thanks for these comments. I really appreciated seeing you talk to us and point out the aspects of the home page.
It strikes me, though, that the design seems to want it both ways. You say that adding "university" might detract away from our message as a liberal arts college, which is already a hard-to-pin-down-idea. And yet I see little on the rest of the home page that foregrounds (or explains) "liberal arts college." It seems to me that the way to let people know about SU as a liberal arts college is to put that message--in different ways, of course--all over the home page, rather than simply remove "University" from our name. This home page gives me a lack of clarity about what the school delivers, not a consistency of message.
I think I understand the paint splash as being "outside the box," and I take your point that marketing ideas always sound hokey when we talk about them, even though they can have real effects in practice. However, I still think it's important to remember that not all of the visitors to the home page are looking for an "outside the box" message. Many prospective students probably will. But other visitors (many of which have never heard of our school), including future employers of students, potential donors, and faculty peers at other universities, are going to the web site to get a sense of the college's legitimacy (for lack of a better word). I don't think the paint splash provides this, though I do agree that it is likely an attractive design element for a prospective student page. I didn't really hear you address the fact that this a *home page* for many different kinds of users. I understand that the primary target ought to be potential students, but I'd like to hear more about how this home page--and particularly its most prominent design elements--appeal to different audiences.
I think many students have expressed a desire to incorporate more of SU's traditional elements into the home page, while incorporating a more modern and dynamic look. In other words, put a twist on the old stuff so that it is not the same old boring crest and serif font, but also give visitors a sense that we do have a long tradition of academic excellence. Is there something that can be done with the picture from the chapel or another visual like that, which can communicate just enough that there's something "different" here without losing the message of legitimacy (or, let's be honest, "sameness" or "safeness") that some audiences will be looking for?
I am glad to hear that you are reconsidering the copy for the main message. I hope that the page can more consistently and explicitly portray the message of a challenging, rigorous, exciting, and welcoming campus.
Again, I really appreciate your openness to feedback.
I must have taken some of your comments a different way than you intended. After discredited Tanner's idea that the paint made us look like an art school, you then singled him out and told us to "go find that guy" to ask him why he chose to come to Southwestern. It seemed to me like you were mocking him.
But that shouldn't distract us. I like the changes you're working on and I look forward to seeing your detailed point-by-point response. Keep up the good work.
-Matthew
Hi Matthew,
Got it. Actually, several people had mentioned the art-school connection. That wasn't intended as a response specifically to him. It definitely is a valid point, and we don't mean to dismiss it at all.
Elizabeth,
Thank you for the detailed comments. You obviously recognize, very perceptively, that sending a message like "Southwestern is a top liberal arts college" is something that happens all kinds of ways, in both writing and design, in a page like this.
The decision to go with Southwestern (without the University) didn't come entirely from White Whale, although I think there's something to be said for this approach. We'll devote a blog post to this specific question and see what people have to say.
Finally, I think you'll find that the final product will do more for internal audiences (whose primary goal is quick access to commonly used resources, more than learning about Southwestern) than is clear from this image. We have a few functionality-related tricks up our sleeve that we look forward to rolling out as this design becomes an actual Web interface.
Thanks again for your comments.
-- Jason
just a quick comment: I didn't even notice that there was a gray border around the webpage until I saw the video response. I'm using Firefox and I usually have my Bookmarks taskbar open... when it is open, I don't see the gray area "outside the box" but when I turn it off, it appears.
Weird. Anyway, thought I should let you know. Cheers!
Michael
Reading through the myriad of comments and replies, I noticed that no one has mentioned the fact that the library is missing from the top banner of links. Sure, it's in the "quick links" section further down the page, but the library's absence from the top seems to portray SU as a school that doesn't place much value in its library (which I know is not the case). To not see a "library" link at the top of the SU homepage among the other important areas of the SU site was a surprise.
The library is a vibrant part of this campus and an integral part of students' lives at SU, supporting not only formal academic activities, like providing online access to 1000s of scholarly journals and e-books, giving instruction for FYS courses, and facilitating the successful Writers Voice event annually, but also supplying recreational information such as current popular fiction, new release DVDs, and a large collection of popular magazines. We also have a fabulous coffee bar!
If you couldn't tell already, yes, I am a librarian, and I think our library is top-notch for a school of this size and caliber. I wouldn't have come to work here if the library wasn't beloved and supported by students, faculty and university administration.
Without a great library, there cannot be a great university. Fortunately, we have both in Southwestern University; however, no one would ever know it from looking at this draft.
My 2 cents :-)
Theresa Z elasko
Catalog Librarian
I have one huge concern: Grad schools.
I, like a large portion of SU's student body, have my sites set on a Masters. Because SU is such a small, unheard of school Grad schools, Law schools, etc. will likely turn to our website for a better idea of what our education here was like. If they were to see the site the way you have it designed, they wouldn't take us seriously.
In a previous response to a comment, you said you were more concerned with making us look like who were really are rather than like an Ivy. The truth is, we receive an education here at SU that is extremely high quality. Your website - while aesthetically pleasing - does not make it look like that's the sort of education we're receiving here.
It would be a great site for a skateboarding company or a party school, but that's simply not what SU is.
I realize you were hired to do a specific job, and judging from your design I will assume that job was to make us more attractive to prospective students.
That being said, maybe the page you have now would be better suited for a prospective students' section only.
Don't get me wrong, it's a really cool website, but we're NOT a really cool school - at least not for the reasons your site makes it seem like we are.
If you're tired of comments about the way you present the school, which I assume is the way you were hired to present us, please direct us to the SU staff who hired you so that we can express our concerns about the way THEY want us to be portrayed instead.
Jason,
A central concern I raised in my previous blog entry still has not been acknowledged or addressed, so I will repeat it here: Placement of the library link. My library colleagues and I still believe that the link to the library should be part of the main navigation "cloud". (In its present location in "Quick Links" the library link has now slipped below the fold on both new versions of the home page.)
Other opinions voiced by my library colleagues:
-Photos on the prototype pages don't show any/many people, just architecture and landscaping. (Most of us did like the yellow bike photo, though.)
-"I still like the design for something I might look at once, but it is too forceful for something I would look at nearly daily."
-" 'Southwestern' (period) is too generic to be effective."
Of the two new versions, only two of my colleagues have expressed a specific preference so far though I expect more input from them soon. These two were split on their preferences, so we have a tie so far.
Personally, I do think the new versions are an improvement over previous ones, with the caveat noted in the first paragraph above.
johnbigley
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