Century College needed to jazz up their program pages to attract more students and make the information easier to follow. I managed the project across the departments, conducted research and created a wireframe/prototype in Axure.
Century College joined other institutions in digitizing their course catalog. As this project began to take off, it became clear that hosting certain pieces of content on the program pages, as well as the catalog, would be redundant. We jumped at the chance to create a more targeted page with more engaging elements with less clutter.
Using information gained in the time since the launch in December 2015, we had some firm ideas about what we wanted to change.
Project Management
To keep all parties on track, I created a simple task list with dates assigned and a Gantt chart using Microsoft Project. Formal project management isn’t well-adopted internally in higher education, but this was used to share out progress and deadlines.
Information Architecture
The resounding feedback we received is that the prospects who visit the pages primarily care about two things: does this program meet my needs, and what are my job/transfer prospects when I’m done?
The redesigned page prioritizes this information. Starting the page with more of a traditional narrative helps introduce prospects to the program, as does the video. It allows them to say, Yup this is it, or Nope, not quite right. Following up with the related pertinent information–delivery and academic level–rounds up the deciding criterion for prospects. Following it is the post-application information, such as the resources available for support at Century (including transfer options). Finally, to close out the page, the post graduation section features job titles and salaries for the grads. Highlighting the faculty also gives students a chance to reach out for more information.
The final call to action or culmination of the page is, of course, to Apply, reiterating the CTA in the top orange header.
Wireframes
Tools: Microsoft Project, Axure
Skills: Project management, information design, prototyping
View wireframe (password: bigdata).
Task list/Gantt chart:
