New Web site attracts prospective students
By Michelle Hershman, L'06
University of Richmond is striving to keep pace with the latest trends in technology. First order of business: a revised Web site.
"We knew the current site had been up for a couple of years, and it was definitely time to reevaluate our approach to see if we could improve the way we were communicating, particularly with prospective students," said Tim Roberts, director of marketing and publications. "Web technology moves at incredible speeds these days, as do viewers' expectations, and we are trying to be more proactive in keeping pace."
Early discussions began last spring, but the real commitment to the project came during early summer. The project team was composed of staff from University Communications, current students, admission personnel and outside consultants.
"We relied on outside consultants to look at what different trends were going on nationally and give us input into what 17-year-olds are looking for," Roberts said. In addition, the team spent many hours reviewing competitors' sites and conducting informal focus groups with students and other staff members.
"It was critical to get comments from younger students in order to create content suitable for prospective students," Roberts said. "Audience needs are so crucial when approaching a communications project."
Roberts also noted the redesign added new areas for parents (both prospective and current) as well as the Richmond community through public events and community programs pages.
The initial work focused on the undergraduate admissions efforts. However, Roberts said he viewed all of the University's supporting sites as critical partners in helping brand Richmond to the world. Roberts and his team have already started collaborating with other groups on campus to discuss ways to present a more aligned University image through continuity of the entire site's look and feel.
Most of the innovative new technology on the redesigned main site can be found on the undergraduate prospective students' pages.
"Spider Diaries, for instance, allows us to have an additional communication channel to prospective students that isn't in the formal 'University voice,' but rather in our students' voices," said Roberts. "We don't script it, and we don't edit it. We just remind them that their parents may be reading it."
The project team took the idea of the student voice even further by videotaping students' answers to frequently asked questions.
"We've never seen anyone combine video and a FAQ format quite like this," said Roberts. "We thought it would be more authentic if we had students answering the questions in their own voices instead of just having text on a page, as is traditionally done in FAQs."
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