Cooper-Hewitt just recently opened it’s online doors once again to the wildly popular People’s Design Award Website, which we helped them conceive, design and program 3 years ago. The first go around, the site got a shout out on the home page of Yahoo, and after 48 hours of wild scrambling, our hosting partner Rackspace was prepared for the massive traffic, which turned out to be a whopping 4 million unique visitors in one day! The site was a total success in terms of engaging the public on the topic of “design” and what makes great design. Over one month, thousands of nominations and tens of thousands of votes culminated in a winner, announced every year at the National Design Awards gala party.

2008 People's Design Award

The first year the site was live, the winner was the Katrina Cottage, a portable housing solution created by Marianne Cusato. 2007 saw TOMS shoes win the coveted award, founded by Blake Mycoskie. This year, we will have to wait and see!

The People’s Design Award was an early foray by a relatively conservative institution, The Cooper-Hewitt, into the murky waters of social media. We had no idea if the site would gain interest or support, but thanks to a powerful sponsor, Target, and some marketing efforts in the Washington Post and New York Times, the site took off. It was a true testament to the validity of engaging the audience in the discussion. “Design”, a particularly high-brow topic, is often reserved for discussions over candle-lit contemporary table settings in lofts or rehabbed condos in big cities. The Cooper-Hewitt democratized the process by including a “People’s Choice” as a winner included among the winners selected by an elite panel of design experts hand picked by the museum. On this Website, anything goes when it comes to what makes the public say “that is great design”.

While we did include management tools for the Cooper-Hewitt to delete any offensive entries or comments, they rarely need to make use of them. A community feature on the site allowing users to flag nominations or comments as “inappropriate” keeps their workload down, and keeps the site from slowing down to a “pending approval” state.

Other key features were an incredibly easy image uploader and thumbnail generator, so users could quickly add images to thier nomination. Designer Ellen Lupton was quoted as saying “People’s Design Award Website has the easiest image upload tool I have ever used”, and she knows her usability! Other niceties include a comments area where users can discuss the pros and cons of a particular nomination, several ways to browse the site, including by top votes, newest nominations, alphabetical and by location. User’s can vote on any nomination (although only once) as well as share with friends via built in email tools. The site also makes good use of Google Images and Flickr, helping nominators find images to include if they don’t have any handy.

Overall, the site saw a high level of activity and acclaim when it went live in 2006, and we are happy to see it continuing in 2008. It is a testament to clean design and usability being successful in creating a community of users, who have the final say when it comes to the age old question, “What is good design?”

We are very excited to have our work for the American Beverage Association be nominated for a Pixel Award in the Green Category. You can check out the Issue sites at:
http://minisites.ameribev.org/

And stop by the Pixel Awards to enjoy lots of really great work in all the categories!
http://www.pixelawards.com/webawards/top5.php

We are proud to be able to do such exciting work with clients like the ABA who share our appreciation and respect for the environment. If your company wants to share their “green” voice with the interactive world, give us a call!

BALTIMORE, Md. (September 26, 2008) – Interactive design agency Fastspot announces that Kim Koenig, project manager, and Zach Waugh, programmer and developer, have recently joined the firm. The announcement was made by Tracey Halvorsen, Fastspot creative director and principal.

A 1999 communications and business graduate of Ashland University, Ashland, Ohio, Koenig has a depth of experience in marketing and sales and project management. She previously worked in the mortgage industry. Currently, she is managing all aspects of Fastspot clients, including Albany Law School, Berry Plastics Corporation, Cecil County Library and Indiana University. In her spare time, she volunteers with Mid-Atlantic Pug Rescue.

Waugh, previously an IT manager and system engineer in the automotive industry, is involved in a variety of Fastspot projects including Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance. He is a 2004 graduate of the University of Delaware where he received a bachelor of science degree in computer science and minored in philosophy.

About Fastspot
Fastspot is a premiere interactive design agency, widely recognized for its strategic award-winning work, collaborative approach with its clients and its ability to deliver successful, long-lasting solutions. Headquartered in Baltimore, the firm works with clients across the country who seek to develop highly creative and complex marketing, advertising or business solutions. The firm has a particular expertise working with associations, colleges and universities, museums and cultural organizations, architectural and technology firms. For more information, visit http://www.fastspot.com.

At Fastspot, we work with our higher ed clients to typically do one thing - help them attract more applications (and eventually acceptances) from more highly qualified students. Now there is a very complex process that happens in higher ed Admissions offices, with words like “yield” and “conversion” thrown around with fervor the closer they get to their internal deadlines. Mix this very complex and competitive process with a notoriously fickle audience (16-18 year olds), not to mention these kids’ parents who are looking at taking out second mortgages just to pay for the first semester, and it’s no wonder our clients take long summer vacations.

This year is posing a particularly sticky dilemma for higher ed Admissions departments, and the name behind this dilemma is “Recession”. Parents are much less likely to fork over little Johnny’s 40k tuition fees when things are this rocky, and the kids feel it too. They are less likely to clamor for the high price tag of a big name school when they see their parents cutting coupons, and they start to all do one thing - they look at what is “in state”. Yet, while they are doing this, they are still firing off those brilliant application essays to schools that may be across the country and carry the heavy hitting names like Yale or Harvard or Pepperdine, cause face it, that only costs them one baby sitting pay out. Of course they still dream of getting into these schools, and certainly want the privilege of saying “yeah - I got in there”, but then the other end drops out, because, they won’t pay to go visit!

We have learned that the campus visit is one of the most pivotal moments in a potential student’s decision making process, and same goes for their parents. But with gas and fuel prices topping record highs, and the uncertainty that has seeped into our general consciousness, the act of visiting, and the price tag, create a road block. They also create a big problem for those schools who depend on attracting “more / better” students from outside their states.

Here is what happens. Little Suzy decides she will apply to 6 schools, 4 of them Ivy league (or comprable) and located very far away from where she lives, and then 2 state schools that are much less appealing, but right down the street or state line, and much much less expensive. Suzy breezes through the applications and gets accepted to 3 of her Ivies, but she opts to accept at the state school because they are a good solid school and her parents can afford to send her (she probably didn’t qualify for a full ride at the Ivies - where those packages are limited). So what are these non big-state schools to do? They have one option - pack the “wait list” as full as it can go. And what is wrong with this? Well nothing really, except it makes a “highly selective” school appear much less selective, and “highly selective” is a big thing these kids are looking for in the first place. The Washington Post recently covered the topic in this article, and it seems to be the case that this situation won’t be ending any time soon. The Washington Post article stated:
“Georgetown had a surge of nearly 30 percent in early applications this fall, followed by a record total of applicants — and little idea of how many students, if admitted, would say yes.”

It’s no wonder we are seeing an increase of interest from higher ed institutions who realize its a race to raise the bar, and in the right places. There are a few things these schools have to do, including offering incentives for early acceptances. We have seen a surge of schools offering everything from coupons to iPhones to accepted students, and its bound to start happening even before the student accepts. Call it bribery, call it desperation, there is no denying the competitive landscape for this market is getting significantly rockier.

Other less “seedier” options include taking a good long look at the marketing. After all, it’s marketing that got them thinking about where to apply in the first place. “Word of Mouth” is something these schools should start paying more attention to, and not just what comes out of their mouths. How about what other students and alum are saying on Websites like StudentsReview? If they aren’t paying attention, they need to be. Of course, the other obvious culprits are marketing materials, branding and messaging, Websites, virtual tours, and all that juicy stuff.

Since we eat breathe sleep Websites, that is where we focus our attention, and from the looks of things, we should be getting lots of calls as things heat up. College and University Websites are in a sorry state for the most part, and what they do have is typically so geared in the wrong direction (towards an internal audience), that they might as well password protect the whole thing, no prospective student is going to be sold by that experience. And then there is the issue of getting these prospects to visit. If there is a promise of an amazing experience at these schools - they need to convey that through their marketing, and then deliver on that during the actual visits.

In conclusion, as the “wait lists” start to get longer and longer, and schools have to rely on new strategies and approaches to reach this new type of kid, while they can’t control the economy or how many plane tickets a family will splurge for, they can control one thing - their marketing.

A few other articles of interest:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=aMRZeRiiVKHk&refer=home
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/09/education/09admissions.html
http://www.usnews.com/blogs/paper-trail/2008/5/9/harvard-and-yale-yield-rates-remain-unchanged.html