The Signal (formerly the EdTech Connect Podcast)

Ep. 88 - Brian Clark: Building RISD's Digital Future at Scale

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What happens when a prestigious art and design school has over a hundred siloed websites, each with its own content management system, hosting arrangement, and visual identity—many of them orphaned and unmaintained? You get a digital governance nightmare. But you also get a rare opportunity to rebuild from first principles.

In this episode, Jeff Dillon welcomes Brian Clark, Senior Director of Digital Experience at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). Brian shares the remarkable story of how he led the consolidation of RISD's fragmented digital ecosystem—from 100+ disparate sites to a unified, design-driven, user-centric platform built on Drupal. He explains why this wasn't just a technical project but an organizational and cultural one, requiring years of relationship-building, transparent communication, and strategic alignment with the institution's broader brand refresh.

Brian also offers a grounded perspective on AI in higher ed, explaining why RISD chose to implement AI-powered search as a "practical layer" to achieve existing goals around quality and access—not as a shiny add-on. He discusses how conversational search is giving his team unprecedented visibility into what students, parents, and donors are actually asking, and why that insight is "gold." Finally, he reflects on his unique career path from book publishing to agency work to higher ed, and how the principle "at the end of the wire, there's a person" has guided his approach to digital experience for over two decades.

For anyone responsible for digital strategy, web governance, or user experience at a college or university, this episode is essential listening.

Key Takeaways

  • Governance Fragmentation Is a Real Institutional Risk: RISD accumulated over 100 siloed websites due to a lack of governance, creative entrepreneurialism, and technical know-how spread across campus. The result was unsustainable: orphaned sites, inconsistent branding, accessibility issues, and ballooning maintenance costs.
  • Consolidation Is as Much About People as Technology: Brian spent his first year building buy-in—meeting with every department, understanding the purpose behind each site, and communicating a clear sequencing plan. The goal was to ensure that when changes happened, no one could say "I didn't know this was coming."
  • Tie Digital Strategy to the Strategic Plan: RISD was able to unlock funding and institutional support by attaching its web consolidation efforts to the university's broader strategic planning process. This turned a technical project into an institutional priority.
  • Brand and Digital Experience Must Evolve Together: As RISD consolidated its digital landscape, it simultaneously overhauled its brand identity—creating bespoke typefaces and a unifying visual framework. The guiding principle, "question to create, create to question," now informs every stage of their digital design process.
  • AI Is a Practical Layer, Not a Shiny Add‑on: RISD approached AI not as something to graft onto the platform, but as a tool to help accomplish existing goals around quality content, access, and visibility. They implemented AI‑powered conversational search to facilitate semantic, intent‑sensitive search across their entire ecosystem.
  • Search Visibility Into User Needs Is "Gold": AI‑powered search gives RISD unprecedented insight into what users are actually asking—revealing both met and unmet information demands. This feedback loop directly informs content strategy and experience design.
  • External AI Search Is Changing the Funnel: An increasing number of initial college inquiries now happen inside LLMs like ChatGPT or Claude—often without generating any traffic to an institution's website. Brian emphasizes the need to structure content so it is understood and presented well by external AI search tools and Google's Gemini snippets.
  • You Can't Avoid Adapting to AI: Whether the conversation touches on ethics, pedagogy, or creative process, higher ed marketers and digital practitioners must engage with AI. For Brian's team, the frame is clear: we are digital design and technology practitioners who happen to work in higher ed, and AI is already reshaping how prospects search for colleges.
  • "At the End of the Wire, There's a Person": A tagline from Brian's agency days still guides his work—reminding him that digital marketing is fundamentally about two‑way communication and meeting real human needs, not just budgets and deadlines.

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    The Signal Newsletter:
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    Brian Clark on LinkedIn                              

    https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianthomasclark/

    Rhode Island School of Design

    https://www.risd.edu/

    The Modern University Technology Stack: How RISD is Building for What's Next
    https://www.edtechconnect.com/post/the-modern-university-technology-stack-how-risd-is-building-for-what-s-next

    And find EdTech Connect here:

    Web: https://edtechconnect.com/

     

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    The Signal (formerly the EdTech Connect Podcast)By Jeff Dillon