The University of Vermont launched a new Web site October 3.

The site was designed by Generation, a New York-based communications firm specializing in higher education, working in collaboration with university leadership and UVM’s Web team. Generation also designed the university’s new admissions viewbook and a case statement for UVM’s comprehensive campaign.

According to President Daniel Mark Fogel, the new Web site is designed to complement the viewbook and, as such, pays special attention to an external audience of prospective students and their parents.

“We chose to keep this audience uppermost in our minds as the site was designed for an important reason,” Fogel said. “Market research, ours and others, tells us that the Web is a vitally important – perhaps the most important – communications tool in influencing high school students to consider, apply to, and even decide to attend a college or university. We wanted to develop a site that would grab and hold the attention of this important pool of prospects and communicate UVM’s unique attributes to them in a powerful way.”

The new site features a series of interactive content modules highlighting different aspects of the UVM experience. The interactive stories appear on the home page and at lower levels of the site.

Fogel said that, while he hopes the site will inform, intrigue, and influence prospective UVMers, its design is also directed to other audiences, including current students, graduate students, researchers, and friends of the university.

The architecture and navigation have been redesigned to make information easy to find, he said,” no matter what your interest or affiliation.”

The contemporary design scheme and creative use of interactivity, Fogel added, convey a message about the university that should be appealing to all groups.

In addition, Fogel said, the site features special “gateways” so internal audiences (and some external ones) like current students, faculty, and staff will have shortcuts to the information they seek.

“This is a highly innovative site I’m very proud of,” Fogel said, “I hope the UVM community will join me in celebrating its launch.”

To give your feedback regarding the new Web site, please take a short survey at the new UVM website. In addition, you may send comments to [email protected].