Barnard College

The Client

Barnard College is a private women's liberal arts college affiliated with Columbia University, located in Manhattan, New York City. Barnard is unique in higher education. The College offers the benefits of a small liberal arts college, the resources of a world-class, Ivy League university, the vast opportunities of New York City, and the inspiring environment of a women's college.

The Situation

With the goal of attracting a diverse audience that includes the finest students, educators, researchers and thought leaders, Barnard needed to re-envision its brand strategy to communicate the individuality and passion of its community. The College aimed to ensure that its unique and compelling brand story was conveyed in a way that was fresh and original.

The Challenge

The current site was challenging for some visitors to navigate to find the content they were seeking and the system was also cumbersome for the content editorial team. There was a substantial amount of important content that needed to be strategically and automatically migrated to the new site safely in the new content types and fields, and requiring as little manual content editorial changes as possible. On the old site, the content editorial team had to manually copy in course data from a third-party system, which was time consuming, error prone and in dire need of improvement. 

The Solution

Barnard’s partner Digital Pulp created a new dynamic Drupal website that clearly and effectively presents the real, modern Barnard experience. Visually compelling narrated stories highlight Barnard’s differentiators while strengthening and reinforcing the institutional brand. A strong visual and technical foundation will allow for growth and flexibility over time. A redefined navigation structure enhances utility for prospective students while offering other core audiences a smooth user experience. 

The Results

The new site is fully Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) accessible and focuses on showing versus telling the Barnard story. The brand experience is consistent and user friendly throughout Barnard.edu, allowing the content team to effectively communicate the college experience to prospective students. More videos and interactivity throughout the site better engage prospective students. Storytelling, personal expression, slices-of-life and glimpses of academic excellence in action give a vivid picture of the Barnard experience. Modular design elements allow for greater flexibility and customization through content across the site for the content team, and allow for feature-rich landing pages and deeper interior subpages.