C. Mac HamiltonProject ProposalApril 24, 2016

“We wouldn't have a billion-dollar advertising market in this country (the US) if people didn't think you could influence someone else's behavior.” ~ Columbia University epidemiologist,

Madelyn Gould

Introduction Dear Members of the Committee,Thank you for allowing me to make this proposal to you. It gives me great pleasure to review and make the requested recommendations for your consideration for making improvements to the NSU Department of English, Foreign Language, and Cultural Studies web presence for graduate studies in English. I have been working under the instruction of Dr. Thomas Reynolds to produce document designs of the highest quality and effectiveness.

In this proposal, you will find a review of the task at hand, as well as an evaluation report of the current design. Finally, there are specifics regarding the recommendations for revision and redesign of the department’s site. The primary focus of the recommendations is on updating information and graphics, not only for increased aesthetic value, but to also provide additional support to current students, and a stronger visual appeal that will add energy and excitement to provide greater motivation in the recruitment of prospective students.

PROJECT BACKGROUND PURPOSE OF THE PAGE Since the most effective means of student recruiting is through social media and the institutional website, it is imperative that universities make their presence and programs as attractive and appealing as possible. Therefore, the page should be as informative as possible, while still eliminating needless clutter in order to present a strong visual appeal. The page should also be designed with features that will make it easy for current students to find what they are looking for. And finally, the page should be positively evocative enough to spur action on the part of prospective students to seek out additional information regarding graduate studies in the English Department at NSU.

AUDIENCE OF THE PAGE

Student feedback indicated that information on the departmental website is difficult to navigate, feels outdated, and lacks the Web 2.0 capabilities that are available on many other sites. The audience of the prospective page will consist of students who have completed at least a B.A. degree and therefore will most probably have already gained a great appreciation for technology and well-designed electronic documents. Further, as more and more older students are returning to college for additional degrees or certificates, it is also important to keep in mind that these prospective “Digital Immigrants” will require and respond more easily to sites that are not overly complicated, verbose, or laden with technological jargon. The adult learner can be a very valuable revenue source for the department and the university, so their skills and preferences must also receive strong consideration.

CLIENT GOALS FOR THE PAGE While the site will stress the content of the student first and foremost, it is also important to include some information about the various faculty members that will provide the instruction as the means to meet students’ goals. See the recommendation below as how to best convey that message to viewers while maintaining the primary focus of student support and recruitment. The inclusion of an advanced acknowledgement of the importance of technology in modern English studies will also be presented as the department updates its image and methodologies as an elite player in graduate English research and writing.

GENRE OF THE PAGE The webpage will be one of information and interaction that will stress positive usability, and from the genre class of “Non-private Portrayal”. It will be vital to work with the IT department to provide strong, attractive links to additional pages that provide corresponding information--applications, course descriptions, faculty bios, and financial data. Search engine optimization, or SEO, will play a major role in the dissemination of the department’s message and mission of the portrayal.

INITIAL ANALYSISFirst, my assessment of the page is that the content regarding the department’s strengths, as well as its compelling reasons for desiring student success showcases the excellence of the department. The page is complete with relating the accomplishments of its graduates, and conveying the pride in the manner in which the instructional designs and course content are delivered. While the department’s site has worked well, several improvements to the look-and-feel, user interface and site structure have been identified:

The design look-and-feel is too conservative to reflect the innovative and dynamic personality of the English department offerings;

Navigation menus are disconnected and confusing to navigate;

Constraints to the primary text column require excessive scrolling and reduce ease of use;

Text is difficult to read;

The information architecture is confusing and makes information hard to find.

One clear strength of the current site is its focus on “stories, not statistics” and “people, not programs.” This human focus reflects the department’s culture and educational philosophy, and should continue to reflect that. Overall, it does an excellent job of describing the concern that faculty members show for their students. On the other hand, I have identified some areas that could significantly improve the design and content to make it more appealing and user-friendly for both current and prospective students. They are listed as follows:

The initial analysis exhibits a lack of creativity and “pizzazz” for such a dynamic program.

There is lacking a sense of what it means to be student of the Digital Humanities in this day and age.

The M.A. in English Online Program is a significant source of revenue for the university, but its significance is not brought to the forefront enough to grab the prospective student’s attention at first glance.

There is too much wasted space on the faculty members’ info at the bottom of the page, which lessens the impact that the site could have on student recruitment and retention.

There is a glaring lack of color contrast that makes the page look lethargic and outdated.

Typography is pretty boring and common to today’s digital reader, particularly Digital Natives.

The use of images is nowhere present, which implies a lack of emphasis on multimodal strategies for content production.

The site could gain by highlighting more aspects of the emphasis on peer-production and collaborative projects.

More emphasis should be placed on diversity and the welcoming of minority students, whether implicit or more directly conveyed at the department’s discretion.

COMPARATIVE AND USABILITY ANALYSIS

In preparation for this proposal, I researched several other websites from major universities. The links to them are provided below. The most significant differences of these sites versus the current NSU site lies mostly in the chosen design concept, particularly in the showcasing of multimodal technologies and how they fit into the program’s overall department aims.

http://www.holycross.edu/academics/programs/english

This site uses a good mix of style design and images, mixing up the typography to convey modernity in the program. It features a significant amount of white space so as not to add clutter, but also provides larger font styles for easier access and navigation. The slide show at the bottom, “English News” is also a wonderful idea and allows for a great way to keep the departments goings on updated all the time.

http://www.uwyo.edu/uwgrad/

This site immediately says, “We are vibrant, modern, informative, fun!” The University of Wyoming has done a very thorough job of offering a lot of valuable information, yet in an uncluttered style. The center feature of the student puts that in the minds of the viewers that the personages of the student always is at the center of the educational process.

http://illinois.edu/

The University of Illinois site is clean and concise and takes on the feature formatting style of many of today’s newspapers, or what is known as “chunking”. The font style and size is easy to read and does not draw attention away from the image and the teaser content. I really like the way that they have done this!

http://www.stthomas.edu/english/graduate/

St. Thomas’ site makes great use of multimodals, but needs more contrasting colors. The video at the end is a good idea, and can also be updated as needed or desire—again putting the emphasis on the student.

http://www.snhu.edu/online-degrees/masters/ma-in-english

SNHU’s online program offers a really nice blend of today’s technology and the traditional English program. I think, however, that the decision to list, rather than link, financial information on the main page is a poor one. Also, the listing of the Admission Requirements comes off with too much of “assuming the sale”. I believe that this should come at a later stage, through a link connection. But the student testimonials are an excellent touch that

adds a “folksy” aspect to a serious decision for students that says, “We care.”

GOALS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Convey the sense that NSU’s English Department is a place of ideas and is an exciting place in which to learn;

Create a look-and-feel that reflects the innovation and cutting-edge intellectual personality of the department as a thought-leader in modern English education;

Integrate blogs and podcasts to reinforce the impression of the English Department is a leader in multimodal education and highlight the focus of the department’s training on dialogue and discourse;

Maintain a focus on “stories, not statistics” and “people, not programs.”

Create a design language that is complementary, flexible and distinctive The site should complement the new overall university identity while maintaining a distinctive personality. The site should also take full advantage of the flexibility offered by new technologies and new media so that the site can be easily added to over time without costly redesigns to interfaces and templates.

Create an information architecture that is easily searchable and organizes information clearly;

Design the site with flexible elements that are transferable to print media.

Enable ease of use for all constituencies. Making the site easily understandable, searchable and navigable is absolutely critical to the site’s success. Designers, content developers and programmers should work together to ensure that menus are simple and make sense, that the site architecture is clear, and that type is easily readable across platforms. The information architecture should be structured so that prospective students, current students, faculty and alumni can easily find and share information.

Restructure menu navigation so that it is simple and easy for users from all audiences to follow;

Design a typographic hierarchy that is clearly structured and readable on all platforms. A good typography forms the basis of a well-defined web project. Font selection is particularly important and it has to be accurate and based on a detailed analysis so that the textual content blends well with the graphics of the page, thereby tempting a person to remain on the site. In this case, research shows that:

Trebuchet 12pt. would be the choice for body content and sidebars, 16pt. for subheading titles, and Georgia 22pt. for titles.

“A font’s main purpose is to be read, and readers need not TRY to read your text, rather, it should just happen.”

http://www.yourinspirationweb.com/en/which-is-the-best-font-to-use-when-developing-a-website/

Present content in chunks makes scanning easier for users and can improve their ability to comprehend and remember it. In practice, chunking is about creating meaningful, visually distinct content units that make sense in the context of the larger whole. Chunking refers to the strategy of breaking down information into bite-sized pieces so the brain can more easily digest new information. The reason the brain needs this assistance is because working memory, which is where we

manipulate information, holds a limited amount of information at one time. Note: The University of Illinois website is the ideal example of using this method.

When evaluating schools, another top concern for both prospective students and parents is whether the investment in education will pay off after graduation. Research indicates the first place where users went to find this information was the Alumni page, which they associated with all things after college. The department should provide data about what graduates are doing after graduation, with numbers and sources to support those claims. Source: https://www.nngroup.com/articles/university-sites/

Stock photos often elicit responses about the school being generic, bland, or showing little effort. In contrast, users appreciate images that look authentic and representative of what it’s like to be at NSULA. One study showed that a user stopped mid task to comment on the images: “Visually, it seems like it’s not about taking your money. You’re going to get a degree, and you’re going to be proud of it. I see a lot of smiling faces, people that love what they’re doing.” Mission accomplished.

Make it easy for users to view a list of majors and programs.Prospective students look for majors and programs, not schools or colleges. A staggering 48% of users didn’t realize that the university offered the program that they were looking for even when it did. A

reason was that people didn’t know which degrees belonged to which school — when they didn’t find a program where they expected it to be, they assumed it simply wasn’t offered. Instead of forcing users to guess where their program of interest is, offer the option to view all of the options, i.e., brick and mortar, or online study. For departments with lots of programs, group them by field, but make sure the degree names are visible. https://www.nngroup.com/reports/university/

Participate in Award competitions and publicize when members of your department receive these prestigious awards. Highlight opportunities for university recognition by listing honors and awards programs, as well as publishing opportunities through the likes of Argus and other university press publications.

CONCLUSION

.To meet the goals outlined by the department, it is my belief that the website should:

Highlight the unique settings of the university, both geographically and online;

Take advantage of technology to emphasize the forward-thinking atmosphere of the school and appeal to computer-savvy prospective students, while still remaining user-friendly for the widest possible audience;

Place greater emphasis on the multidisciplinary approach to learning that is integral to and English educational experience;

More effectively use photography to showcase the stories and people who make the department and the university unique. I recommend that the site present a visual message of modernity, simplicity and sophistication, while focusing on the people and stories they tell. Type should be easy to read and pages should utilize a grid structure. Pages should be uncluttered but informational, and images should be powerful and consistently treated throughout the site.

All of this should incorporate the current branding standards (logos and colors) already developed for NSULA. All blogs and podcasts, where applicable, should be highlighted prominently on the home page, and possibly referenced throughout the site. For example, pull quotes from bloggers could be featured with links to their posts throughout as a way to generate discussion. I propose investigating new ways to integrate this message more thoroughly throughout the site, emphasizing Socratic teaching, dialogue, and broad-based learning in more areas.

REQUEST TO ACCEPT PROPOSAL

You want creative ideas that stand out and stick with your audience—This proposal provides a unique understanding of marketing logic informed by intuitive creative thinking. This perspective allows to craft ideas that stick with all potential viewers and make a lasting impact with your message. My design can accomplish this.

You want design that communicates, not decorates—the goal is to create materials that influence viewers and further the mission of the department, and I use the understanding of strategic messaging and communication to do it. Combined with a strong design sense, and the result is more than a good-looking website. It’s an effective one.

You need flawless execution that produces results --experience in web design ensures that I will take care of the details and produce a

website that exceeds expectations and instills confidence in your viewership.

I have carefully studied your request for new departmental website design and text for the Department of English, Foreign Language, and Culture at NSULA. I am pleased to submit this proposal for review and consideration. I look forward to partnering with you to continue the excellence of the program and its presence on the Web, and it is my hope that you will concur with my recommendations to move forward with them. When you are ready to move to the next stage, I will be delighted to confer with my Executive Design Director and provide you with a speculative mockup that will visually detail the articles in the proposal.

Best Regards,

Charles Mac Hamilton, M.A., M.F.A.Graduate Designer-In-TrainingNorthwestern State University

Additional Source: http://blogem.ruffalonl.com/2012/08/06/working-graduate-student-recruitment-marketing/