Organizational identity design: The evolution of a university web homepage

This chapter applies a multimodal social semiotic approach to examine the organisational identity design of three key iterations of a university web homepage. It considers organisational identity communication as a complex social semiotic practice across four inter-related dimensions: The site of production, the site of the virtual artefact, the site of the medium, and the site of audiencing, focusing predominantly on the site of the virtual artefact (i.e., a text presented for interaction and consumption). Addressing the subtle shifts in form and function of a web homepage, the chapter provides systematic insights into the multimodal construction of organisational identity. It demonstrates how subtle changes of the design elements translate into a palpable shift from representing the university as a legitimate education provider that lists available study options and research opportunities to communicating an appealing image of the university to imagined audiences while presenting the informative function of details about the university's workings in a more implicit, covert way. It concludes with implications of such shifts for university web brand practitioners and the broader scholarly community and contributes to the continuing synergy between organisation studies and multimodality studies.