The Website, www.bucknell.edu, primarily targets prospective students and their parents using a creative approach highlighting the Lewisburg, PA, school’s strong academic programs and resources, its Division I athletic programs, small class size and intimate and classic campus environment.
Our conceptual approach for the site focused on accurately conveying these key attributes of the Bucknell brand: intellectual and academic achievement and creating world leaders. For example, we developed 'Pathways' as an editorial and creative vehicle to tell specific 'big picture' stories about the university. Overall, we believe the site now conveys a more sophisticated, worldlier impression of Bucknell.
Bucknell was suffering from outdated stereotypes regarding its reputation and this was affecting the type of student who was applying and accepting admission. While Bucknell does include a Division I sports league, an active Greek life, and a student body that includes students who beckon from affluent families, there is much more to the educational experience than frat parties, shopping sprees and football games.
Bucknell University provides a stellar academic experience and access to some of the most innovative and relevant lecturers, speakers and faculty in the country. Students who are seeking a first rate academic experience married with a classical campus backdrop and the ability to combine a biology major with a minor in dance, thrive within Bucknell's gates.
Fastspot conduced an in-depth period of Discovery with Bucknell, and was fortunate to have access to several brand reputation studies conducted by Peter Hart Associates. Discovery led the way to a much-needed thorough reorganization process for the Information Architecture, ensuring content was intuitively organized and easy to find.
Once our structure was in place, the primary challenge was messaging. How could we convey all that Bucknell had to offer while not alienating current students or presenting a false persona?
Our approach following Information Architecture was to consider conceptual directions. We narrowed our focus toward concepts that would drive the messaging, be easy to maintain long term and attract the right kinds of students.
Wireframes were then produced to assist in the development of a robust 'callout' and module system which was integrated into the designs to lend flexibility. After primary design directions were finalized, landing pages, modular elements and the callouts were designed and developed into templates.
The Bucknell Web team integrated the Website templates with their CMS, Ingeniux, and were able to migrate the content and infomation quickly and seamlessly, launching the site only a few weeks after the final templates were delivered.
