reimagining the higher education website - columbia college chicago and ifactory
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The document discusses the challenges and strategies in reimagining higher education websites to better engage prospective students. It highlights the importance of a content strategy that utilizes data and user personas, leading to significant improvements in engagement metrics after redesigning a college website. Key outcomes include a dramatic reduction in content pages, increased session duration, and higher inquiry rates.
reimagining the higher education website - columbia college chicago and ifactory
- 1. reimagining the higher education website the art of engaging prospectives
- 2. will vautrain @vautrain director of digital strategy columbia college chicago pete gaioni @petegaioni director of account services iFactory (Boston)
- 3. tintype 17-year olds imagine their future in terms of academic programs and course offerings they know what they want to do with their lives and the 30-year impact of decisions if we can get them to apply, the fit doesnt matter; theyll learn to love us
- 4. frame columbia challenges ideas solutions outcomes
- 8. not a pretty picture rising costs low retention, graduation lack of clear transfer paths
- 9. tell-tale signs of an assembly-line higher ed website
- 15. uninspired my content mentality no content strategy (no strategy period) lack of workflow lack of editorial planning & oversight
- 16. artful ideas use data to fight subjectivity talk in terms of personas (would patrick?) content strategy to inspire and aspire assume mobile
- 17. research (2011, n=182) user priorities* programs admissions financial aid * hardest to find
- 19. discovery stakeholder interviews strategy articulation town hall
- 20. strategy self-identify as right-fit and convert consistency - expectations vs. experience understand user's mental model
- 21. architecture user personas card sorting sitemap wireframes
- 23. content storytelling 100% new academic content purpose of key pages (gathercontent)
- 25. design agile, iterative process (design > content > prototype > design)
- 26. testing sitemap testing october 2013 prototype testing april 2014
- 28. gallery opening
- 33. outcomes (total content pages) 36,000 (2013) 944 (2014 - new site) = 97% reduction
- 34. outcomes (duration) 2.7 minutes (2013) 16.25 minutes (2014 - new site) = 600% increase
- 35. outcomes (pages/session) 2.4 (2013) 3.5 (2014 - new site) = 46% increase
- 36. outcomes (bounce) 56% (2013) 41% (2014 - new site) = 27% reduction
- 37. outcomes (inquiries/month) 470 (2013) 855 (new site) = 82% increase
- 38. hindsight conventional wisdom leads to uninspired work creativity and data arent mutually exclusive listen to stakeholders and talk to them content strategy is not content migration centralize governance, decentralize contribution
- 39. thank you! questions? @vautrain @petegaioni