Virginia Tech Web Site Redesign Creates Emotional and Appropriate Experience

By Eric Karofsky, Strategy Consultant, and Manivone Phommahaxay, Senior Experience Design Consultant, Molecular

As the world searched for answers to last week’s horrific shooting at Virginia Tech (VT), the web site team deployed a sensitive and timely response that provides support, tribute, and information, while also allowing the University to conduct business.

Through planning, intense dedication and long hours, the team created a new home page and microsite and updated it with 24/7 content.  According to Michael Dame, the Director of Web Communications at Virginia Tech, the institution had a plan for a home page emergency alert system incorporated into the VT standard design, and escalation options even allow for a stripped down version of the home page. “But we had nothing planned on this magnitude, where we totally redesigned our home page in response to a tragedy of unprecedented proportions,” said Dame.

As with all modes of communication, the redesign succeeds due to its ability to transcend “information delivery” by creating an emotional and fitting connection with the viewers while also offering valuable content in a logical manner. This is demonstrated in numerous ways (see figure 1):

• New home page layout allows tribute to the victims and new color palette tastefully reflects the mood, yet is still consistent with the Virginia Tech brand.
• The home page maintains key elements of the site design (navigation, news and events, etc.), but the clear focus is on the tragedy.  They’ve found a way to highlight the priority content without losing site that visitors may be going there for more than just information on the recent tragedy.
• The site offers multiple ways to view and engage – text, video, user contributions, fund contributions, and photo galleries allow for a rich and appropriate multi-sensory experience.
• The user contributions build on the sense of community and create emotional connections to other users through interactive, rather than passive, communication. This is in response to the “35,000 individuals and families who have so eloquently expressed the sorrow, hope, strength, and resilience of our community” (as stated on their site).
• “We Are the Hokies, We Will Prevail” is included in the new header at the top, reflecting an attention to detail.
• By creating a microsite, http://www.vt.edu/tragedy/, grieving visitors can obtain the information they seek, while avoiding ‘overload’ for members of the VT community who may be emotionally overwhelmed and want to return to their normal routine.
• Personalized content for different audiences (for students, for faculty, for all) lets users focus on the content that is important to them and gives direct access to it, while also offering phone numbers for more information.

Figure 1:  Redesigned Virginia Tech home page

“Web site” effectiveness sounds like a trite topic while more pressing issues such as gun control, violence, and media choices are under review. Frankly, it is, until you change the paradigm of a “web site” and think about it as the main channel for collaborative and engaging outreach.

As participants in the 21st century, we are all witnessing the use of web sites in exceptional ways to create emotional bonds. A sample includes:

• Deployed soldiers are communicating through blogs: milblogging.com links to over 1000 military blogs.
• Sites dedicated to socially responsible issues are fostering a new level of community: just one example, the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting lists 16 current initiatives.
• Students across the world can take classes at top universities: MIT’s OpenCourseWare allows for a free MIT education where the only requirement is an Internet connection and a browser.
• And yes, communicating with loved ones in the face of disaster.

Is Virginia Tech novel in its approach and execution? No, but perhaps it is this simplicity and use of well understood design concepts that allows it to achieve its impact. The site is just a combination of words, photos and some multimedia, but combined in such a way that they create a rich experience.

Best practices exist in reaching out and fostering community – some using simple concepts, some using advanced technology. The questions are: How are you reaching out to your constituency? How are you creating an emotional bond and building trust with them? How are you soliciting feedback and improving on your joint value proposition?