Online Viewbooks at the Rhode Island School of Design

Whether trying to make the most of a limited budget or adjusting to a changing landscape in communications, many institutions are taking a close look at the balance between print and web. The Rhode Island School of Design, in Providence, R.I., is successfully tipping the scales “webward,” with online viewbooks that provide a holistic and dynamic look at the programs and student work that make RISD unique.

Making the call…

When Becky Bermont, vice president of RISD’s media + partners team, came to RISD in 2008, a review of the printed viewbook was already underway. The RISD team had completed some research with Maguire Associates, and was starting to rethink how prospective students use both print and web. The time was right to consider a new paradigm to reach those who might be a good fit for RISD.

Knowing that students today are increasingly likely to rely on the web when forming impressions of colleges and universities, and that a growing number actually apply without having any prior contact with an institution, Becky and her team decided to rely more heavily on the web to provide critical information about the departments and programs at the School, with a printed viewbook used more as an overview with reference to the website. Becky notes that the nature of the institution also supported this decision: “It’s important for us to showcase the work that the students produce. It’s highly visual, and that lends itself to the web.”

Building consensus…

With plans and ideas in hand, Becky’s next step was to conduct an internal road show for RISD faculty and staff. She and her team understood that this idea was radical in some ways, and wanted to ensure that the community was invested. Response was positive from the beginning: “It’s so much more worth it for us to spend that time up front and have people really invested than just plowing forward and ended up with something that doesn’t really represent the institution.”

Since the current RISD website did not provide the design or infrastructure needed for the planned viewbooks, they were created as stand-alone sites for the undergraduate (http://www.risd.edu/undergraduate) and graduate (http://www.risd.edu/graduate) programs. Each department page showcases student work and provides detail about the programs available, and video is used effectively throughout. In the end, the departments did all the writing and selected all the images for both the undergraduate and graduate viewbooks.

Results…

The sites launched in late 2008 to acclaim both inside and outside the RISD community. Both the undergraduate and graduate viewbooks were honorees in the 2008 Webby Awards competition, but perhaps more importantly, questions to the admissions team about department offerings have gone way down, indicating that prospective students are finding what they’re looking for online. And printing costs were reduced by 20%.

Beyond their obvious benefits of providing critical information to prospective students, these online viewbooks do an incredible of creating a sense of place. Video and images work seamlessly with text to create a very vivid picture of what it’s like to work (and play) at RISD. Honestly, after ten minutes looking at the sites, I was ready to apply.

If you’re thinking about trying this…

Don’t feel as if you’re locked in. “The approach we took was very much ‘Let’s just try it,’” Becky says. A project like an online viewbook represents a major change in communications, and it’s a good idea to leave the door open to further tweaks down the road. In fact, RISD is planning on putting a little bit more detail in the printed viewbook in the future to ensure that the focus on each discipline is explained.


Think about user needs. The RISD microsites, which exist outside the structure of the main site, have actually started to get more traffic than the department pages on the main site. Coordinated with the printed books, they make “shopping” easy for prospective students, who can float easily through each discipline to find out more about what’s available. 


Get everyone involved. The RISD project was a success in large part because of the excitement and energy around it on campus, and the willingness of a wide-ranging group of people to come together to make it happen. “We did some wireframing and then really relied on the departments for content,” Becky says. “It was rewarding for them in the end.”


Be honest. “The truest way that I can do things here is to get as close to the classroom as I can, and then just bring that to the surface,” Becky notes. Art students are looking for authenticity, and so are more mainstream graduate and undergraduate students.

“The Rhode Island School of Design is nontraditional by nature, and there’s a real respect for the visual,” says Becky. “But in many ways our process is just like any other institution’s. Kids are kids, and most of them are shopping for school online.”

Posted by Katie Jennings
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