Work is underway to give Dartmouth’s online presence a new look.
“The Dartmouth home page is our virtual front door,” says Justin Anderson, vice president for communications. “At a time when most people can’t visit campus in person, it’s more important than ever that our web presence reflects the true spirit of Dartmouth, highlighting our commitment to liberal arts teaching and world-class research in our beautiful, unique location.”
Anderson says the aim of the redesign is to provide a rich experience for visitors that is easy to navigate and to introduce audiences—primarily external to Dartmouth—to the institution. The website is designed first and foremost for those who want to learn about Dartmouth, he says, as external visitors make up almost 80% of the traffic to the portion of the site that is being redesigned. Those pages had more than 3.7 million views in 2019.
In addition to catering to visitors such as prospective students and their families, prospective faculty and staff, the general public, and the news media, the redesign will make the site easier to use for Dartmouth faculty, students, staff, and alumni.
The changes will be made to the web pages visitors most often look for when landing on the Dartmouth site, including those describing Dartmouth, and its schools, degrees, departments and programs, campus life, and scholarly research. The site will highlight Dartmouth’s commitment to diversity and inclusion, and the institution’s profound sense of place, with a focus on its liberal arts core and robust research enterprise.
The redesign involves almost 8,400 pages on the websites that make up Dartmouth’s web presence. It will not include changes to the graduate and professional school websites, the admissions website, or the athletics website, among others.
The new design is expected to be completed by early summer and will include integration of a separate website—Dartmouth News, the home for the institution’s news, videos, photography, and resources for journalists—into the new design.
The design firm Third and Grove is working with Dartmouth on the project, which was approved last year as part of Dartmouth’s capital expense budget. The agency has been soliciting input from faculty, students, and staff.
Along with Anderson, the project’s executive sponsors are Lee Coffin, vice provost for enrollment and dean of admissions and financial aid; Mitch Davis, vice president and chief information officer; Joseph Helble, provost; Laura Hercod, chief of staff in the Office of the President; Bob Lasher ’88, senior vice president for advancement; Kathryn Lively, dean of the College; Matthew Slaughter, dean of the Tuck School of Business; and Elizabeth Smith, dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.
Members of the working group, which will manage the project day-to-day, are Anne Adams, news director and managing editor; Susan Boutwell, senior director for content; Amy Bucci, director of digital resources and strategy; Jon Chiappa, senior director of Web Services; Richard Clark, senior graphic designer for communications; E.J. Kiefer, executive director of Conferences and Events; Diana Lawrence, associate vice president for communications; Ben Morgan, associate director of Web Services; San’Quan Prioleau, UX and visual designer for Web Services; Erin Supinka, associate director for digital engagement; and Hannah Welch, analytics officer for communications.