Redesigning program pages and creating framework
Overview
Learning about the academic programs available is one of the top priorities for prospective students and their families at any school. Columbia had redone their website in 2014 to a more department-focused site structure, but in the redesign, there was limited information available on each individual program. The challenge for this project was to create a more flexible framework to highlight program details that allow for customization yet remain consistent across different departments. My department managed the process of reorganizing, updating, and adding new content for the college, in addition to assisting content managers with targeted campaigns for a specific school. I worked with communication managers for all the schools to better understand the kinds of content they wished to display, while also creating a system flexible enough for the developers to create these pages within our content management system. I created a template and framework that would be flexible enough for relevant information from the departments to highlight projects relevant to their audience.
My role(S)
Project Lead 🙋♀️ / Researcher 🤔 / Designer ✍️
Process
I received content from the department and sketched a few options before coming up with the wireframes. For the last iteration, I asked the communication managers for each program for their input on what content should be prioritized for their schools. I also reviewed input taken from other surveys and interviews with prospective students to prioritize content on pages. Between input from the content creators and feedback from the intended audiences, I needed to create a more flexible template to highlight specifics from different programs.
I also created a list of subjects to categorize the programs, so users can see related majors and programs. This subjects list was developed from a card sort, with 62 cards representing each program, and narrowed to 6 subjects.
I created the surveys and studies, analyzed findings, and designed wireframes throughout the research process. After working with the developers and content managers, I produced the templates for content creators.
Outcomes
More dynamic pages that broadcast program information and prompt prospective students to apply to the college. This led to an increase in page views and an easier process to update content for higher engagement. Organizing programs by subject remains one of the key tactics used by the college to market programs of study.
