Bob Johnson's Blog on Higher Education Marketing

"Whenever a client brings up a specific need or requirement, we do some digging to learn what's behind the request - It's important to know what we're solving for. Clients are often susceptible to trends (e.g. We need a blog! Not sure why, but we need one!). If a solid strategy isn't attached to a request, it often falls flat.

"When RD is raised, we want to make sure that our clients understand what Responsive Design enables (and what it doesn't), and that it requires some additional effort (and therefore cost). Gone are the days when mobile was a nice-to-have. RD is now far more mainstream and doesn't feel like a trend request."

"We're in the midst of many responsive projects right now, and each pose their own set of challenges. If I said cost, would that seem shallow?

"One of the most frustrating things I've read time and again is that Responsive isn't really that much more work --B.S. If you do it well, it's more work for everyone involved. And as an agency, it adds an entire level of approvals and revision cycles to a project. 

"A number of RD articles have said that a majority of responsive design work should be done in code -- and not in design. While I have the utmost respect and admiration for good front-end developers, I haven't run across many developers with an incredible design aesthetic. 

"For a truly elegant Responsive result, you need the creative and front-end development teams working together. There are so many ways of creatively solving interface challenges these days that the sky's the limit -- you just need someone to make the right choices."

"We've come to realize that "Phase I" is overstating it. I might re-classify it as a .5 release. For a number of reasons, Dartmouth wanted to demonstrate progress as early as possible, so we worked with the internal team to quickly implement 3 templates that were integrated into the architecture and content (no substantive changes were made). A very light version of a Responsive approach was implemented to hint at what would be coming down the road.

"In the coming months, a entirely new architecture will debut - and with it more than 40 unique RD templates that will have been fully integrated into Drupal. Nearly every area of Dartmouth.edu will be affected."

"Those sections actually weren't touched in Phase I - they've remained unchanged for many years. We worked with the Dartmouth team for several months to completely re-think the entire site architecture, consolidating several hundred sites into a single cohesive structure and user experience that balances simplicity and the school's ethos.

"While we can't share the specific architecture until launch, we can tell you that everything has been consolidated and language has been re-tooled to more effectively balance Dartmouth's pedagogy and relevance to the world. We think it's going to have a big impact on how Dartmouth connects with its many audiences."