It’s been over a month now since the eduStyle Awards. I just wanted to share a few lessons we can learn from the nominees and winners. These are things that I think all higher-ed designers and web workers can take heart in.

1. Small Schools Can Rock

Last year Boston University walked away with a lot of awards. Because of that, some assumed you had to be a big school to compete. Looking at this year’s list of the nominations it’s clear small schools can not only compete, they can win. You could argue that as a rule, small schools are generally better at creating great websites.

2. The Past Doesn’t Matter

With some determination and the right team, you can overcome history and politics to build an amazing site. Schools can rocket from abysmal to amazing in a single redesign. We’ve seen it with a few of the sites and I’m sure we’ll see more examples in the future. When it comes to the web, it’s true that the only thing that matters is what you are doing today.

3. Standards Based Code Is The Standard

With a few specific exceptions, nearly all the sites nominated this year used straight html/css/js. This isn’t horribly different than last year, but it shows you don’t need flashy intros and snazzy animations to stand out. In fact, those can sometimes distract from your core message.

4. Social networking is making inroads

We’re beginning to see more and better integration with social networking on school sites. I think in the future we’re going to see even tighter integration which will make schools more personal and responsive. Whether you believe the hype or not, social media will have a profound impact on how schools do business and interact with their students.

5. Design excellence is contagious

The level and quality of design we’re seeing in all aspects of higher-ed is getting better and better and this is acting like a rising tide. As designs get better, people are aspiring to greater heights. That means next year, you will see even more amazing stuff. As a result, schools and departments are taking their sites much more seriously and are investing in people, skills, and technology.

What are your observations from the eduStyle Awards?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 1st, 2009 at 12:38 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.