Design in Education
Recently, more and more students are choosing their colleges not by visits or mailings, but instead, the internet. While visiting colleges remains an integral part of the final decision for most students, college websites introduce students to everything that the school stands for. However, is design in the education sector improving because of this?
In short, somewhat. Large universities with extensive web teams create beautiful sites that target their audience perfectly. An example of such is Notre Dame who employs designers such as Steve Smith on their team. These teams, glued together with years of experience, can successfully design for grabbing the attention of incoming students.
However, the problem lies in the lack of these professional designs. Good design is still in the minority of college websites. While a site may reflect how wealthy a university is, it doesn't necessarily reflect the rigor or quality of the education there. Nonetheless, many colleges still aren't taking the steps needed to upgrade their websites.
More colleges need to realize that while their reputations might draw interest from incoming students, the web is becoming the first stop for research about anything, especially education.
Permanent Link · Published on March 4th, 2009