Stanford, no doubt much like other major universities struggling with these issues, started with such a web site. As greater numbers of individuals within the University (or affiliated sites) took to the web the organization, look and responsibility of the pages became a more pressing issue.
How does a large, diversified, distributed organization such as a University begin to collect this information and provide a mechanism by which web offerings could be presented in a similar way? Is it possible, for instance, for all Stanford pages to have a "Stanford" look? More importantly, is it desirable? This paper will discuss the growth of the web at Stanford and discuss efforts to provide collaborative efforts for diverse groups to come together on web presentation.
What's missing is the corporate image.
Some sites have tried and succeeded, some have tried and failed, but mostly web sites are not trying.
When a corporation hires an agency to create a million dollar ad campaign, the CEO gets involved, Vice Presidents are consulted, marketing joins ranks with sales and provides focus groups, test beds, etc.
When a company is about to bring a new piece of software into their product line, there are alpha sites, beta sites, test groups and developers meet and meet and meet.
When a brochure is being developed for an organization, artists are hired, graphic designers are contacted, art directors given direction and printers told what quality of paper, type of ink and printing style to use.
This is not happening on the web.
Now before you shout "Anarchy before order" consider this:
Even the simplest of TV ads require directors, camera people, production assistants, etc.
And such a commercial may reach a million people. Maybe a few times.
When you put a web site up and announce it at CERN or NCSA you can reach 10 million people. Many more times than once. And at sites that are far out of the reach of commercial TV.
Are you considering what your web pages say about you?
What I haven't seen are questions about
Like most other colleges and universities, Stanford caught onto the web by virtue of the Computer Science Department (although the Stanford Linear Accelerator, SLAC, was on prior to this, they did not offer a home page for Stanford). A Doctoral student learned about it, aliased his machine's name to www.stanford.edu and started organizing information. He scanned a number of images of Stanford, decided what topics would appear where and offered it up to the world.
When attempts at discussing web standards met mostly with apathy, Kevin Hughes, formerly of Honolulu Community College, now with EIT and CommerceNet was invited to meet with the Stanford web folks. He agreed.
Kevin showed several sites (including his own, of course) that had attempted to bring a semblance of unity and art to their pages. He discussed use of color (50 per image, 150 per page max), button bars as navigational aids and icons for consistency. He also took a lot of time showing webmasters what not to do. Between Kevin's instruction and my own experience here are the
It was apparent that the standard paper documentation coming out of Stanford had a certain quality about it. The Stanford colors of deep red and sandstone are commonly used. The publication services group within Stanford had often used the distinctive architecture of the school and the richness of these colors to set their publications apart from those offered by other Universities and organizations.
Where are these people now that the web needs them?
The first time I had a chance to have the web imitate art was when I became involved in the Stanford Instructional Television Network pages. My first suggestion was to use Stanford Publication Services to design a "look". By employing both a graphical designer and an art director we took a concept that brought architecture and color to the SITN's World-Wide Web catalog.
The ideas sound simple, but the implementation is not. It wasn't simply a matter of creating a piece of art and turning it into a .gif file. The artist, unfamiliar with the new requirements of the medium, had no idea how to proceed. The art director, however, was able to instruct her on the need to keep the screen in mind and to apply such techniques as anti-aliasing to the text. With our combined efforts the SITN pages gave the image that was needed.
Beyond doing a set of pages for an individual group the issue now is how to pursue this on a campus-wide basis. As the primary promoter (or should I say proselytizer) of a Well-Designed Web Architecture, my job now is to convince more and more people - not just at Stanford but here as well - of the beauty of the web. The beauty not just in the gee-whiz nature of the user interface, but in the possibility of an overall design that embodies art as well as utility.
Second, consider what your pages say about your organization. Does it portray a professional quality that you would normally invoke with your pamphlets or brochures? Or does it speak volumes about disorganization, disarray and dissension?
Third, think about what you want to say with your pages - are you trying to tell the world who you are? What you do? What you can do for them?
Are you selling something? If the answer to any of these is yes, consider how someone with a marketing background might get involved.
Finally, if you're willing to spend $20,000 on a brochure that gets used for a year, why not invest at least that much with a graphic designer and an art director to do the web right. In years to come this lasting legacy of your venture onto the superhighway will pay it back in plenty.
Christine has a special interest in the graphic arts and has endeavored to find ways to include that in the design of web pages. Although her attempts have been seen on the web, she knows there's still a lot more work to do to have effective use of graphics and the web merge.
Ms. Quinn was formerly Manager of Engineering Workstation Support at the Aerospace Corporation in El Segundo, California. She graduated from UCLA with a BA in Mathematics in 1974.
She can be reached at quinn@eecns.stanford.edu.