That's what good websites have turned into. They are no longer "online brochures" as they were in the 20th Century but a place where users can go to get some measure of "tangibility" or what the product or service is like, in a form that is easy to use and digest [usability]. It doesn't have to be pretty anymore, it just has to be effective. And in case you missed it, there's been a revolution in our ability to quickly find information with the inauguration of Google about 10 years ago. Today, if users don't find what they are looking for quickly [as they often do with Google] on your website, that's it, ...they're gone. And if they come away confused and have no idea what you are selling after cruising your website, your website has failed.

Websites have gone from a secondary or tertiary form of audience contact to a primary one. This is especially true for colleges. Unfortunately, due to mostly institutional limitations [are the right people attending those web committees?], most college websites fail the tangibility test. Great photos, profiles and stories seem to still make it into print with the master college brochure or alumni magazine, but they don't get any posting on the college website.

More college websites are posting student profiles, but few post faculty or alumni profiles. And almost none publish "campus lore" on the college website. Every campus has "campus lore" but you wouldn't thinks so from browsing college websites.

Admissions offices have tried all kinds of things online to lure applicants from "live chat" rooms to text message phone numbers posted. They even post authorized student blogs, "contact a student" email links, and virtual campus tours featuring fuzzy pan & zoom pictures of various campus locales.

But few have tried posting high resolution photos of students amid facilities or in-depth, well-written student profiles, faculty profiles, alumni profiles.

It's not the technology of the website, it's the stories found there that will keep applicants coming.

-Tim Corwin
Fall 2008