AgencyND

My 1996 Spam Filter

It’s usually a mystery how a spammer got your info. But in 1996, a tiny mistake became to the most useful spam filter I’ve ever found.

October 26, 2011 — 0 Comments

"That Sucks": Negative Feedback after Launch

On July 1, we launched ND.edu 4.0. This was a new look and feel for the site, as well as a conceptually different approach to the homepage and navigation. But the biggest change was a fundamental shift in who our audiences were. I’ll elaborate on these later, but that’s not the point of this post. The point? Every time we make a major change to the design of the ND.edu homepage, we get feedback. And it’s overwhelmingly negative.

August 16, 2011 — 5 Comments

Yes, You Should Chase Shiny Objects

If Google does something, we all notice. If a hot, new social network hits, we all notice. So this week, the world is a-buzz with the latest social network, Google+. And if you’re a cynic, like me, you’re thinking, “Great! Another social network. What makes this special?” Here’s the thing: it’s ok to be intrigued or cynical.

July 06, 2011 — 2 Comments

Horizon Report 2011 for Marketers

Last year, we looked at the 2010 Horizon Report and the emerging technologies that are expected to affect our institutions in the next five years. Now, the 2011 Horizon Report is out, and as it is with every year some technologies creep closer and others mysteriously fade away. Let’s take a...

February 11, 2011 — 0 Comments

3 Email Marketing Failures, Illustrated Edition

Three tales of email marketing gone awry, where they went wrong, and what you can do to make sure you don’t have an email fail.

February 02, 2011 — 0 Comments

Emergencies and Your Web Design

After a major campus crisis, schools often respond by scrambling to put together a crisis plan. Often this stops with a “business continuity plan,” or how they’ll keep things going despite a crisis. At Notre Dame, my colleague Julie Flory helped establish a Crisis Communications...

November 18, 2010 — 2 Comments

Mobile in Higher Ed: Where Do We Go Next?

I’ve spent some time thinking about where we need to go next with mobile. Our websites are mobile-friendly (it’s just part of our process) and we have a pretty good mobile website at m.nd.edu. But we’re not done. We don’t have an app. There’s more to develop. And the...

October 24, 2010 — 1 Comment

Can you unlock your digital assets?

Notre Dame has recently begun to tackle the problem of our many content silos, with digital assets being captured, stored, processed, and delivered in so many ways. Last year, our interviews with faculty and staff revealed a troubling conclusion: It’s often faster and easier to re-create c...

October 22, 2010 — 0 Comments