Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/59881
Now that the Internet has evolved from mere novelty to sheer necessity, a Web site doesn't just complement a business school's marketing strategy. It is the marketing strategy. t's quick. It's comprehensive. It has changed the way we live. It's the Internet, which has evolved from a text-based playground for college-age whiz kids to an interactive hub of information for every- one. No longer just a public resource, it's now the resource that people use most to work, chat, research, and learn. This has led business schools to examine more close- ly their Web-based marketing and communication strategies. Such examination is a relatively new phe- nomenon among higher education institutions, says Louis Malafarina, CEO of Ripple Effects Interactive, a web design firm based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. When the company first began serv- ing the higher education market just four years ago, most schools wanted their Web sites to work only as peripheral extensions of their offline marketing plans. "The first time we worked with business schools, they User-Centric Universe As business schools go through major redesigns, one lesson has become clear: An effective Web site focuses on what users want to hear more than on what a business school wants to say. That shift alone has moved many schools to rethink how their Web sites appear and function, says James Ho, a professor of information and decision sciences at University of Illinois in Chicago's College of Business Administration. In 1996, Ho wrote a well-circulated paper titled "Lessons of Business School Web Sites," which examined just how business schools should and shouldn't utilize their online real estate. "In 1996, it was clear that most business by Tricia Bisoux viewed a Web site as a continuation of their offline, tradi- tional marketing activities. Our business school clients just said, 'Post our information,'" says Malafarina. "Now they're saying, 'Sell our school.' Schools realize that Web sites have become the cornerstone of their marketing activities. Today 100 percent of people choosing a higher education institu- tion will visit its Web site, so that site becomes a school's most powerful tool for outreach." The Internet's evolution has brought with it a consider- able learning curve for all organizations, business schools included. Business school Webmasters are exploring how users interact with their sites in more depth: How are people using the site? What pages do they visit? How long do they stay? What do they want when they get there? The answers to those questions will be the secret to creating b-school Web sites that meet—or exceed—the expectations of users from the moment they hit the home page. school Web sites were designed from the techni- cian's or designer's point of view—they didn't have the user in mind," says Ho. "I wrote that a site must be customer-focused, something that has now become obvious. Business schools have learned to target their stakeholders by category, including prospective students, current students, alumni, faculty, and corporations." Even so, Ho believes that some business schools still have work to do in creating sites that are truly intuitive and user- friendly. For instance, some sites don't make it clear on their home pages whether a link called "Faculty and Staff" will take visitors to an area of the Web site about faculty and staff or for faculty and staff. Other schools allow their sites to fall victim to an inherent truth of business education—its generation of an overabundance of information. "A business school has so much information to convey, it's hard to design a clean-cut Web site. It can't be like Google with only one window," Ho admits. Some business school sites are viewing themselves as business portals, including fea- tures such as stock quotes and weather reports; others want to say everything about themselves on the home page. Both instances may result in sites with extra features that users don't necessarily want and content they don't really need. "In an BizEd JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2005 31