Higher Education
NewCity is an internationally recognized leader in online strategy, design and development for higher education.
Colleges and universities face many similar challenges, and on the surface it appears that they serve the same basic audiences. But there's no cookie-cutter solution to solving these challenges. Even though we've been providing higher ed strategy and web design for years, we never rest on what we already know. In 2006 NewCity was the first firm to apply Indi Young’s mental model research process to the redesign of a university website, leading to a big leap forward in user-centered design for higher ed sites. Since then we’ve continued to innovate in higher ed, always with a goal to better understand your unique story, your particular audiences, and what success ultimately looks like for your institution.
Anyone who works in higher education knows it's a whole different ballgame from a corporate environment. Nothing gets done without a committee. You have to wrangle dozens if not hundreds of independently managed websites under your school's brand.
And yet nowhere is the total brand experience more important for attracting the best students, growing enrollment, increasing alumni engagement and promoting research.
Approximately half of NewCity's work is in higher education. Our work in other industries brings a continual stream of inspiration back to our higher ed strategy.
Skoolpool cool – Facebook connection for students & colleges
I traveled to Eduweb 2008 this week in Atlantic City (Pamela Michael of Imperial College London and I gave a presentation) and saw some cool new ideas for higher education and the web. One of those is SkoolPool. It's a Facebook application that allows:
- Colleges to create profile pages within Facebook, and
- Students to create lists of schools…
WOM goes to college
There's been a lot of talk lately about building brand buzz in the world of corporate marketing. Now that conversation is making its way down the hallowed halls of colleges and universities across the country.
Actually, a better way of putting that would be that colleges and universities are starting to listen to the conversation that's going on…
Roanoke College Launches!
NewCity collaborated with Rytter Design and Roanoke College to develop the theme "Classic for Tomorrow." We adapted the statement in a new website designed to compliment marketing materials created by Bob Rytter's team in Baltimore.
The team at Roanoke College laid out three very important points of their story that we needed to tell.
• Roanoke…
NewCity Selected to Redesign CSU East Bay
NewCity has been selected to develop new information architecture and redesign the web site for California State University East Bay, located just south of Oakland in Hayward, California. Our friend Indi Young recommended us to CSUEB after she had done some initial research and architectural work for them focusing on prospective students.
Jeannine…
Lessons learned from Imperial College London
Imperial College London web team: From left to right, Sian Berry, Pamela Michael, Caroline Davis, Becky Manning, Peter Gillings, Tom Johnson, Maurice Farmer, Tom Miller, Saul Batzofin and Stuart Croghan
Jeannine Everhart and I traveled to London in early February to meet with Imperial College London for an end-of-project review. We met with the entire web team and went through all aspects of the project including feedback from students and staff, analytics, review of project…
Blow up your admissions site
One lesson jumps out from the dozens of interviews and usability tests we've conducted with universities like Virginia Tech and Imperial College London: You should blow up your admissions site.Prospective students don't click on "Prospective Students" or "Admissions" if their question is "What can I study here?" or "What will my life be like…
Examples from our Portfolio
Results that speak.
We took the highest award for institution-wide branding in CASE’s national Circle of Excellence! The entry included the development of the overall brand position and key messages, its presentation through brochures and the new website, and its launch through the mascot competition. Your work was simply outstanding. It was recognized as such by peers. It is working for us, giving us the biggest ever incoming freshman class. Thank you for your insight and direction, your creativity, the quality of your craft, your hustle and your patience with us.
- Blair Garland - Roanoke College


