From left to right: images from Ball State’s award-winning site

Like many state research universities, Ball State is a complex organization, providing both wide-ranging opportunities and an intimate learning experience. How can a website convey the big

ideas—and the small ones?

Ball State University got its start more than 100 years ago as the Eastern Indiana Normal School, dedicated to educating teachers. Today, it has more than 20,000 students and is home to exciting

research in many fields. The University offers members of its community a long tradition and a history of focus on education. At the same time, Ball State is a modern, world-class university, offering students cutting-edge opportunities in fields like telecommunications, architecture and teacher education.

challenges in scope and organizationFor Ball State’s website (www.bsu.edu), illustrating this contrast was just one of the challenges. Though its original website had some excellent features in place, mStoner was engaged to relaunch the website and achieve the following objectives:

‣ Re-architect the Ball State website to use logical and intuitive information structure that make sense

to the outside visitor, not just the University

‣ Infuse the new website with branding messages that help to build the argument “Why Ball State?”

for prospective students and their influencers

‣ Design a new look and feel that’s aligned with the visual essence of the branding work, and highly

accessible for and usable to BSU’s key audiences

‣ Implement a new content management system (CMS) that supports distributed authorship and

decentralized site management without compromising site integrity, and provide the necessary

systems and training for staff to make the new site sustainable long term

‣ Increase applications to the University by helping to promote the value of a BSU education in ways

that are meaningful and persuasive to prospective students and their influencers

‣ Increase giving by building a strong case for support of the University and by providing essential

information to prospective donors who conduct their personal research online

Case Study: Striking the right balance for a large university

Client at a GlanceBall State University‣ State-run research university located

in Muncie, Indiana

‣ More than 20,000 students enrolled,

including 1,500 postgraduates

‣ More than 170 majors offered

‣ Established in 1918

Project Overviewchallenges:‣ Redeveloping the website

results:‣ 2008 Webby Award Honoree

‣ 2008 “Best Overall Site” from the

eduStyle awards

‣ Merit Award winner, the Annual

Admission Advertising awards,

Internet/Website category

‣ Applications up 38% in the year

following site launch; while this

cannot be attributed solely to the new

website, the on-campus team feels

that it played an important role.

creating clean organization and architectureTo ensure visitors an optimal experience on the site, and to control the messages conveyed, mStoner’s team first created a grid of key audiences and the information they’re looking for, followed by the tasks

that they’d like to perform on the site. Our audience grid led to a refined information architecture that streamlines the homepage of the site

while allowing visitors to easily dig deeper in many different directions.

The IA divides content into topic-based, audience-based, and task-oriented links. Topic-based sections include the general “About Ball State” information, admissions, academics, student life, etc. Audience-

based links, based on the visitor types discussed above, provide a different approach to content for students, faculty, alumni, parents, etc. Finally, the task-oriented links cut right to the chase with immediate access to things like the search and directory functionality, giving visitors the option to go straight to the answers that they’re looking for.

Our recommendations also included suggestions on blogs and alumni features, an event calendar, and

academic templates to ensure consistency throughout the site.

a design to bring life to the organizationOnce the architecture for the site was established, mStoner’s design team went to work creating a

design that would not only present the links described above in an orderly fashion, but also would create a lively and attractive interface for site visitors. While the organization of a site determines some of the information that will be presented on the homepage, the real strength of a good design is everything else that the visitor finds on arrival.

Ball State had specific messages to convey to site

visitors. The balance of being a large university with an intimate focus, for example, or of a long history combined with a vision for the future. The design for Ball State’s homepage conveys these messages in an innovative way, with compelling

image pairs that lead to more detail, which in turn lead to pages deeper within the site. Profiles of students and faculty and news items are also used to highlight some of the exciting work and projects that are taking place on campus. The design also

establishes the Ball State brand through logo, color palette, imagery and tone, and creates a clear visual hierarchy on the page using visual cues to convey importance.

Case Study: Striking the right balance for a large university

content management: the right functionality, the right fitBall State had a content management system going in to the website redesign project. The university was fortunate to have a good understanding of what a CMS can do, and a relatively large number of people prepared to jump in and participate in maintenance. However, a new system was required to manage all the functionality being imagined for the updated site.

Nine out of ten mStoner projects include some form of CMS selection and configuration, so we had a general idea of what would be required when we began work with Ball State. We worked with Ball State to determine a list of specific functionality required for the site, and then assisted them with a selection process that included: pre-qualification, user testing, extended advanced testing, financial review and references, and vendor selection/contract negotiation. mStoner also made staffing recommendation so

that the right team would be in place to make use of the CMS.

While there was a good deal of work to do in customizing the final choice for Ball State, the new site is running smoothly with active content contribution.

the relaunched bsu.edu: award-winning resultsThe new Ball State University website was launched on October 1, 2008. Response to the site was overwhelmingly positive from the Ball State community, from students to administrators. The site has already garnered industry-wide recognition as well:

‣ 2008 Webby Award Honoree

‣ 2008 “Best Overall Site” from the eduStyle awards

‣ Recognition from the “Content Marketing Today” website:

“The website and the research it showcases represent the very best of content marketing...A very

cool University. An excellent website.”

‣ Merit Award winner, the Annual Admission Advertising awards, Internet/Website category

Case Study: Striking the right balance for a large university

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