A university’s ability to communicate with students is contingent on its internal systems working efficiently and effectively. Otherwise, the institution risks communicating a disorganized message, misinformation and a confused brand. In this presentation, I walk through some organizational structure ideas as they apply to higher ed and how they affect institutional branding. From there, I …
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Susan Talbert Evans wrote a great post about the difference between fragmentation and segmentation when it comes to social media. My university (11-12,000 students) is about to enter into this discussion so this is a timely, well thought out piece. I work in a centralized comm department and my recent census of school related social …
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McKinsey Quarterly takes a look at the centralize vs. decentralize decision so many organizations face and one, in my humble opinion, which higher ed should ask more often. McKinsey recommends asking three questions to frame productive debates on the subject. From the article: Is centralization mandated? Can it add 10 percent to a corporation’s value? …
Continue reading “To Centralize or Not to Centralize… That is the Question”
The single most important thing higher ed websites can do is change the fundamental organizing principle away from the org chart (content organized via department) and toward people. This means organizing content via degree programs which represents the fundamental connection point between student and school. User tests show that students have consistent informational needs when …
Universities are social organizations, but there’s little proof of it in how their technology is thought of, planned or deployed. Sure, everyone now has a set of icons that will whisk people to Facebook, Twitter and beyond, but precious few are really embracing what social really is and how to bake it into their core …
Continue reading “Higher Ed: Marry Social & Technology For A Win”
I love Boston.com’s Big Picture and want to bring it to the University of Denver. We already get a stream of student supplied photos, but we hide them behind our password protected internal system. A true shame, but hey, new year’s resolutions…
Higher ed organizations are poorly structured to create exceptional customer experiences across all points of contact. In this talk, Peter Merholz discusses the symptoms of broken organizations and how they can become truly customer-centric.
Nick Denardis of EDU Checkup critiqued the University of Denver’s redesign and gave it a 94%. Pretty good. He liked the strong visual impact of the homepage, that content was geared toward addressing student needs and that the underlying code was done with SEO and accessibility in mind. What Nick didn’t know, couldn’t know, was …
Continue reading “Tension Between Marketing and Usability: Part 1”
Many higher ed institutions use Flickr to share photos with their constituents. We launched DU’s Flickr site this summer. We also set up an “internal” Flickr account for our overworked photographer Wayne. It was meant to cut down on his daily grunt work and, I’m happy to report, it has. Here are some of the …
Some random connections: Similar in that the “solutions” don’t account for the real audience that matters: patients / students Similar in that those with ultimate decision making authority are swayed too much by lobbyists and insiders Similar in that those in positions of power tend to be too insular in their thinking and don’t go …
Continue reading “Health Care Bill(s) & (Many) Higher Ed Websites”