Cracking codes

Keene State College’s home page, checked upwards of five times a day by the active student and surfed during leisure time, has been taken for granted by some students. Unbeknownst to them, hours of brainstorm and installation are behind every effortless click.

Since Internet use became universal, higher education institutions were provided an instantaneous platform for advertisement toward college-hunting high school students and parents. Also available to these institutions is a common ground for interaction between faculty and students, an educational catalyst providing students with links to further information and a timeless cyber location for alumni to remain connected to their alma mater.

KSC graphic design professor Melissa DiPalma explained the fundamental functions of a Web site.

“Any time you are using a visual media to represent or promote a place, a person an organization, the visual aesthetic behind that has to be in line with not only the identity and the brand of the organization but also an inspiration to take action,” DiPalma said.   
Web design, graphic design and journalism majors know the marathon of arduous work needed to produce an up-and-running Web site consistent with an organization’s principles and objectives. It’s no surprise colleges and universities dedicate an entire department’s staff to the production of their institution’s online base and KSC is no exception.

A 12-person staff makes up KSC’s Marketing and Communication department. Director Kim Accorsi said although the recently merged department is still in a transitional period, the staff remains responsible for multiple duties.

“We maintain the Web site, do design work on it, help departments around campus, update their content, take things down, manage the homepage,” Accorsi said.
According to Accorsi, the MyKSC home page is updated almost daily, while other frequently visited sites such as admissions, financial aid and departmental sites are updated weekly. 

But the demand for the most current information isn’t the department’s main concern. One of Accorsi’s biggest challenges is accommodating the various needs of the thousands who visit the site.

“It’s something I think we need some improvement on,” Accorsi said, who called the process a “page-by-page analysis.”

Neglecting to tackle this dilemma could result in misinformation or the dreaded dead-end search.

“It’s important to ask the question, who’s the primary person who’s going to visit it?” Accorsi said. “The admissions Web site obviously is going to be geared towards prospective students, but a current student isn’t going to be looking there for information, so we don’t want to bury information there about academic requirements on that site.”
DiPalma agreed and said she thought the site could be doing more to address the needs of all site visitors. She identified the pillars that deem a Web site accessible or incomprehensible, noting the importance of smooth navigation and practical structure but emphasizing the critical role content plays.

Accorsi said her team works to make sure the KSC Web site helps viewers find what they’re looking for and also aids them in taking action, making decisions or finding contact information.

This inspirational technique proves important in the college setting as recruitment is essential to building upcoming classes.

Besides MyKSC e-mail and the posted campus announcements Accorsi said there are a few aspects of keene.edu that often go undiscovered by many students.

“Things that students might be unaware of are not necessarily on our Web site but are connected to the Web site,” Accorsi said. She referenced the Web site’s Facebook and Twitter presence, the course cancellation listings and the campus events calendar as three of the more unnoticed but useful elements on the site.

Although Accorsi said her department currently does not utilize KSC faculty input, she said she plans to collaborate with the film and communication departments in the future.
Accorsi’s next task is approaching rapidly. She said in the next few months the department will reconstruct certain problematic areas on keene.edu by combing through the Web site’s information and noting insufficiencies.

In planning for the changes, Accorsi expressed her need for student feedback as a tool in the reconstructive process for a resource that has the potential to impact students.
“We have great opportunities for student who are learning this, to put some experience and some expertise and gain some expertise,” Accorsi said.

Tara Nathan can be contacted at tnathan@keeneequinox.com.