Northeastern University School of Law
Challenge: The Northeastern University School of Law is unlike any other institution of its kind. The NUSL cooperative learning program allows students to take on four discrete “real world” working opportunities during the second and third years of law school. This opportunity arms them with the skills they need to succeed, as well as the knowledge to make informed decisions about the right path for their future. NUSL relies on narrative evaluations, rather than written grades, and places a strong focus on public interest law. However, for prospective students considering many different institutions, these strengths may not be easily apparent. The existing NUSL website was very thorough in presenting the facts about the school, but lacked the “color” that could grab attention. The Northeastern School of Law partnered with us to help determine the key messages that would speak to these prospects, as well as students, faculty, the law community, and the public. Together, we created a website and viewbook that would convey these messages.
Solution: Our first step with NUSL was to send a team to Boston to meet with students, faculty, and members of the administration to talk about what makes NUSL stand out. Understanding both the pros and the cons of NUSL’s key differentiators was an important part of our strategy development process, because it allowed us to develop information architecture and design in response. Our subsequent work focused on content creation, as well as design, information architecture, and content management system implementation.
Results: We believe that the new site conveys critical messages for the school in an elegant and beautiful way and allows visitors to accomplish their objectives while learning all they can about NUSL. Integrating our design with the university’s content management system (Serena Collage) ensured that NUSL’s on-campus team will be able to maintain and grow their web presence over time. We also incorporated video to let the voices of the school be heard loud and clear and to engage prospective students of the YouTube generation. Finally, we worked with the NUSL team to develop a model for long-term sustainability and governance that includes business process changes, staffing, training, oversight, and maintenance. Our focus on sustainability means that this site will continue to evolve and improve in the months and years to come.
