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

About this episode

Brian Clark discusses the consolidation of RISD's digital ecosystem and the role of AI in enhancing user experience.

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…

People in this episode

Host: Jeff Dillon

Guest: Brian Clark

Topics covered

• digital governance
• higher education
• user experience
• AI in education
• digital transformation

Keywords

• digital experience
• content management
• AI-powered search
• user-centric platform
• digital ecosystem

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Rhode Island School of Design

Products: Drupal

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