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Student Affairs
Daniel Salter Penn State University Editor Stuart
Brown |
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Fall 2000 • Vol. 1, No. 3 |
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Colorado State University |
Colorado State University |
Colorado State University |
The campus ecology perspective (Banning, 1980) has historically focused on the relationships among students and the campus environment, particularly the campus's physical environment. One of the important historical intersects of students, physical environment, and behavior has been the campus visit by prospective students and families. During this visit, the importance of the campus's physical environment becomes evident. Boyer (1987) notes the importance of this visit and the role played by the campus environment:
…The appearance of the campus is, by far, the most influential characteristic during the campus visits, and we gained the distinct impression that when it comes to recruiting students, the director of building and grounds may be more important than the academic dean. (p. 17).
The purpose of this article is to translate what we have learned about visiting the campus's physical environment to visiting the campus's virtual environment on the World Wide Web. The importance of carefully planning for this visit is evident in the report of Guernsey (1998) where it is noted that in 1996 only 4% of prospective students used college and university homepages as their first visit to campus, but by 1998 that number had dramatically increased to 78%. No doubt that number by now is nearly 100%. The question is not how the students walk the actual grounds of their campus of choice but rather how they are able to navigate those grounds virtually from their home computer!
The major concern regarding the physical or virtual visit to campus is whether the visitors can find the campus and visit the campus without getting lost. Campuses can be designed through architectural features, both natural and built, and signs to facilitate a welcoming and pleasant experience, or they can be so poorly designed that the campus visit becomes a source of stress and frustration and can influence the decision not to enroll as a student. Garling, Book, and Ergezen (1982) suggest there are three important characteristics of the physical setting that are linked to the ease of finding one's way around campus: (a) the degree of differentiation among structures, (b) complexity of the spatial layout, and (c) the degree of visual access. In blending the physical visit with the web-based, virtual visit, we have incorporated these three ideas and expanded them to the three characteristics to be explored in this article: (a) differential consistency, (b) intuitive logical guidance, and (c) clear flexible structure.
Differential consistency speaks to both the physical and virtual campus visits and suggests a compatibility and coherence among the campus physical characteristics and the web site. In addition these campus characteristics are clearly differentiated one from another.
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Physical Visit An attractive campus to the eye has an architectural consistency that evidences planned foresight and care. There is a campus hub, which may center on the student center or learning resources center; radiating from that hub are the various discipline or program satellite centers. There is a planned consistency and organization to these important programmatic units on a college campus, but within that consistency each unit's functions are carefully and clearly differentiated one from another. This specific differentiation within the overall consistency is accomplished through signage designating functions and services rather than surnames of memorialized alumni; sculpture symbols announcing building functions; and landscaping clearly enhancing each building's individual character. |
Virtual Visit Differential consistency is just as important in planning the virtual visit to campus. On the campus web site the designer must create a consistent look and feel for the visitor through the use of text color and font size in presenting the different signage is used on the web's pages. Building signs will be consistent with the ones a visitor would actually see on campus, but they can also be made to differentiate the specific function of the building more easily than the physical signs because of costs or physical limitations. For instance, a building named for an important founder may be engraved forever in concrete, but on the web the building's function can be in large lettering and the founder's name placed lees conspicuously beneath. This technique follows the principle of the web site information matching what the visitor will see upon arriving on campus and implementing the concept of differential consistency. Similarly, actual images or representative symbols can be utilized on the facades of the physical buildings in reference to the departments within making it easier for the students when they arrive on campus. This approach mirrors the physical campus's use of sculpture and landscape to delineate one department or building from the other even though the buildings resemble one another. This differential consistency can be extrapolated out to encompass the discipline satellite centers. They must not be identical to the campus hub, but they should be consistent with that hub. An appreciation for each discipline's character should be present. Where this may be difficult to accomplish on the physical campus, it can be easily achieved on the virtual campus. Thus, the web site designer has the flexibility to design a consistent yet diverse site to make the virtual visit easier and friendlier with the added advantage of matching the physical campus recognizable to the student on his/her first visit to campus. |
Intuitive logical guidance must direct the planning for the physical and virtual campus visits. This concept honors the visitor's individual intuition while developing a sequential logical information flow to assist each visitor in navigating the physical and virtual campus.
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Physical Visit Intuitively, the first-time campus visitor approaches the college visitor center. Inside and outside the center the campus locator map is displayed with an "up-forward orientation" to help the visitor with directionality. The locator map should have an easily identifiable building or landmark within the visitor's direct sight line as the visitor faces the locator map (this is known as "structural matching" in map design). Leaving the visitors' center, the visitor should be able to follow sidewalks and footpaths leading to specific campus building designations or to satellite hubs within the larger campus. Having arrived at a satellite hub, the buildings named for service and function reassure the visitor that his/her intuition and the designer's logic have prevailed. This guidance system is important to all visitors but is especially important for visitors physically challenged. All buildings and building accommodations should have easy access for the physically challenged; in the event only select entrances and certain internal facilities are so designed, the pathways to them must be clearly identified early enough so that steps and wheelchairs do not have to retrace themselves. |
Virtual Visit The campus's virtual visit home page should reflect this visitors' center concept created on the physical campus. Attractive images of the visitors' center should be present with a map or map link showing how the visitor physically gets there. Having virtually arrived, designed links guide the visitor to individual areas and campus satellites of interest. Having arrived a satellite center, the virtual visitor should be directed to its visitor center, college information center, and department main office. The web design should reflect the physical campus with the use of images and text. Many times the names reflect an academic logic or jargon that do not lend themselves to intuitive searching. Links should use function text, as well as actual names, so they are usable both virtually and physically. Make the "sidewalk" links logical and related to their physical counterparts. Allow for the "grass paths," do not force the user to follow just the "sidewalks." The physical visitor should have a map and refer to it as s/he proceeds on her tour or to find her/his destination. Thus, for the virtual visitor the designer should provide maps, or links to maps, on each page so that the visitors will know where their position currently is and can jump back or forward if needed. This may be a map of the web site, as well as a map of the physical campus. When the student or visitor arrives at the destination, s/he must have links to all available information and forms that would be available were s/he physically able to visit that location. Provide links to forms for requesting more information if the web site is not able to provide them all. In comparison to the physical visit, the virtual visit must accommodate the physically challenged. Pages should be simple and usable, complex images should be avoided, and alternative text provided for those images that are used. |
A clear flexible structure is needed to navigate both the physical and virtual campus. The physical campus, its fold-up map, and interactive website all need to be understood easily: what buildings, parking lots, services, functions, and programs are located where. Flexibility is needed whether traversing the sidewalks, pathways, the fold-up map, or the web pages virtually carrying the visitor to different locations within the campus.
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Physical Visit The campus bird's eye view is presented to the visitor in a locator map overview or a campus fold-up map. Either can be a daunting first impression of what might be the visitor's new home. However, if the map is clearly laid out according to the campus hub and its respective satellites radiating from the hub, the visitor has an easier time locating where s/he is and where s/he wants to go. This task is even easier if the satellites are in different colors on the map and the map is numbered or labeled spatially from the visitors' center around the campus. Clearly marked on the map and map locator should be the pedestrian pathways crisscrossing the campus allowing for maximum flexibility in attaining one's campus location goal, the parking spaces on campus, and campus shuttle service locations. Part of the flexibility of traversing a campus is knowing what transportation options are available. |
Virtual Visit The web designer must build into the campus's web site a structure that is usable for all visitors, and this is where the flexibility of the web can either be a detriment or an asset to the campus. The information must be accurate and timely, in that the web pages are periodically updated, and they can be accessed with a minimum amount of wait time. Traversing the site should not be ambiguous; it should be clear where a link takes a visitor and the wording of the text should be the same as the physical campus. All web pages must be printable and regardless the size monitors and resolution the visitor is using. The virtual locator map should accurately reflect the physical campus, but it has the added advantage of zoom capability so that the virtual visitor can have a bird's eye of the entire campus or the location of the professor's office that s/he is trying to find. These can be words or symbolic representations or they can be links to actual images of what the map item represents. Regardless of the logic being used, the pages must be warm and friendly, inviting the visitor for a physical visit or to apply to the school. The pages also have to be accurate, representing the campus in all its seasonal changes and actual student population mix and size. |
We have attempted throughout this piece to work with only those technology concepts that seemed from our experience to be readily available. We would like to end this piece with what we hope will be available for all of us in the future. Since we do not have space for all of our prognostications, we will highlight four important priorities:
In summary, Arthur and Passini's (1992) conclusion about finding your way in a physical visit applies to the virtual visit &endash; as in the physical visit good design decreases frustration and stress, increases efficiency, and accessibility. And perhaps in the case of the college and university physical and virtual environments &endash; increases enrollment.
Arthur,
P., & Passini, R. (1992). Wayfinding: People, signs,
and architecture. New York: McGraw-Hill
Book Company.
Banning,
J.H. (1980). The campus ecology manager role. In U. Delworth
& G. R. Hanson (Eds.)., Student services: A handbook
for the profession. (pp. 207-227). San Francisco:
Jossey-Bass.
Boyer, E.
(1987). College: The undergraduate experience in
America. New York: Harper
& Row, Publishers.
Garling,
T., Book, A., & Ergezen, N. (1982). Memory for spatial
layout of the everyday physical environment. Scandinavian
Journal of Psychology, 23, 23-35.
Guernsey,
L. (1998, July 17). College-bound students use the web, but
value printed information more. The
Chronicle of Higher Education, p. A12.
