Evoking “sense of place” in web designs
Higher Education
07.12.2010
In:
Education,
Interactive
I started with three schools: UNC Asheville (UNCA), Appalachian State and UNC Greensboro (UNCG). I went on a road trip with my parents to visit UNCA and Appalachian. I took a formal tour of both schools, met with students informally and discussed my options with my high school counselor. I liked both universities a lot, but in the end I chose UNCG even though I never took a formal tour of the school. UNCG was an easy choice for me. My sister went there and I was pretty sure I knew what I was going to get in. How could UNCA or Appalachian ever compete with that?
It was 1994; I did not have the luxury of using the web. Now schools can create a site that evokes a sense of place. Most people are initially adverse to change and want to know what is going to happen next. Creating a website that accurately shows the environment and the experience can help students prepare for a new experience.
Prospective audiences don’t like seeing images that look like they were purchased through an image stock house. Almost any college can have a picture of a group of students walking through campus in the fall. An image like this does not say anything special about your campus. If you decide to use a fall image, it better currently be fall. And you must be able to see something uniquely distinctive about your campus or have a unique perspective to the photography.
I tested this out and did a Google image search of “Fall” + “Walking through campus.” On the first page I got four images. Interestingly enough, the only shot that had a distinguishing landmark in the image was taken for a news article about a school. The three schools that were using fall images on their sites were missing the mark. They did not identify the names of any of the students and there were no distinguishing characteristics present in the photos. It was also summertime in all of the locations when I did the search.
How do you avoid the generic look?
- You’ve got thousands of subjects you can use for your site. They usually want to affiliate. Current students, faculty, staff and alumni are all potential subjects. Use social networking sites to collect stories and images. Make it a requirement that individuals tell you the story behind the image.
- Give individuals a discount to the school store if they submit an image with someone wearing a school sweatshirt.
- Expand upon stories in your printed publications. Show additional images and expand the story. This will give your publications a cohesive story.
- Once you have an image of someone specific, tell the audience about that person. Your users will connect if they know a little bit about those individuals. Where are they from? What subjects are they affiliated with? I want to determine how I can relate.
- Rent out digital cameras with video and let students record their daily lives.
- Show what life on and off campus is like. Are students able to walk to a grocery store? What are the restaurants on campus? Are there restaurants within walking distance? What makes this experience unique to your university? Do you have any traditions with spots near campus? Do the students?
- What is your campus personality? Does your student population like to ride bikes? Cheer for the basketball team? Is your campus greener than others? Does your student population like to travel on weekends? How can this be visually represented on the site? How can your culture influence the navigation?
- Make your navigation clear. If you vary from standard navigation, it needs to be very clear and have a good reason for doing so.
- Make your photography unique. Bridgewater does a great job of taking photos from
interesting angles. Cornell makes the photo live beyond the frame — a breakdancer’s foot will extend beyond the frame of the featured image on the homepage.
You get the idea. Embrace your culture online. Make it shine through to prospective students. They want to know what their experience will be like and you have a lot of competition. You can’t afford to look like everyone else.
