evaluating your institutional website
TRANSCRIPT
EVALUATING YOUR
INSTITUTIONAL WEBSITE ©ROBERT E. JOHNSON, PH.D. 2015
Improving Your Strategic Recruitment Communications Plan Academic Impressions
Houston, TX
June 1-3, 2015
Bob Johnson Consulting, LLC 1
KEEP. IT. SIMPLE.
What do most people
want from your website?
Fast task completion.
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Let Google help you… https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/
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Attention to Jakob Nielsen… http://www.nngroup.com/articles/university-sites/
Top 10 Design Guidelines… My favorites…
• #5
• “Make it easy to view a list of
majors and programs.”
• #8
• “Follow the user journey:
check the main tasks for
each of your audiences.”
• #9
• “Beware the perils of making
your website ‘cool.’“
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Nielsen review of Bucknell website… http://www.nngroup.com/articles/breaking-web-conventions/
The Nielsen review… The Bucknell website…
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Keep reading levels low… http://www.cam.ac.uk/research
University of Cambridge
Research Grade 10 Reading Level
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Top tasks for future students…
• Top tasks at the start…
• Find the programs you offer
• Visit the academic program(s) of interest
• Learn what you will cost
• See if your grads are successful (AKA, “outcomes”)
• Other important tasks
• Who enrolls at this place?
• What’s required for admission?
• Where are you located?
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Not top tasks for future students…
• Try not to clutter a web page task completion
obstacles to a smooth task completion journey:
• Reading mission statements… for the university or for
individual administrative departments.
• Reading messages from deans and presidents.
• Learning when a college was founded.
• Scanning news story headlines.
• Watching home page carousels unfold.
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THE HOME PAGE…
Most people come to a home page to
leave it as quickly as possible.
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8 easy-to-scan link clusters… http://sydney.edu.au/
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Tasks grouped by cycle stage… http://www.esu.edu/admissions/index.cfm
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Opening with key questions… http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/
• One missing question:
• “What programs do you
offer?”
• Use analytics to
discard or replace
questions of little
interest.
• Ask recruiters about
college night
questions.
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One option… big images, small text https://majors.stanford.edu/
• 99 programs with
interactive searching
by alphabet and
“interest.”
• Images usually match
the major.
• A long way to scroll
• Especially on a phone
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Or just an alpha list of programs… http://www.stedwards.edu/academics/bachelors/programs
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How fast on mobile? https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/
Stanford University… 54/100 St. Edward’s… 72/100
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A first focus on outcomes… http://www.nait.ca/program_home_78110.htm
• As the page opens…
• Career options
• Employment rate
• Salaries
• All text does not mean
fast on mobile…
• 72/100
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Short alumni “experience” stories… http://blogs.davidson.edu/afterdavidson/
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Introducing (mostly) students… http://viewbook.enrollment.cmu.edu/site/viewbook/profiles.html
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ESPECIALLY FOR
TRANSFER STUDENTS…
Top task: how many credits will
transfer to your school?
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Self-help for transfer credit value… https://www.franklin.edu/transfer-credit-college-course-equivalency-tool
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INQUIRY FORMS…
The longer the form, the fewer people
will complete it.
Guaranteed.
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Asking permission to text… http://online.gannon.edu/request-more-information
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Give people a reason to use your form…
Cornell University
• "Join our contact list
and receive emails,
electronic invitations
to programs, and
important admission
updates by completing
the form below."
American University
• “To receive additional information for Undergraduate Programs at American University, please complete and submit the following form. To use this form, you must have Java script enabled in your web browser. AU is sensitive to privacy issues and will not sell or otherwise distribute information obtained from this form. If your browser does not support forms, send mail to [email protected] to request application materials.”
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Can you really personalize response? http://www.calvin.edu/admissions/contact/request/
• “Tell us more about
yourself, and we’ll
keep you up to date
about what’s going on
at Calvin in your
interest areas.”
Request for social security number? https://www.applyweb.com/public/inquiry?s=umuginq
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6 key points to remember…
• People visit websites to complete top tasks.
• Let tasks guide navigation.
• Marketing-focused content is dangerous.
• Often creates speed bumps on the visitor journey.
• Speed gives competitive advantage with
impatient visitors, mobile or large screen.
• Let people tell “real” stories, preferably in short
videos.
• Keep inquiry forms short. Really short.
• Start a content reduction plan.
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THANKS FOR BEING
HERE IN HOUSTON! Bob Johnson, Ph.D.
www.bobjohnsonconsulting.com
@highedmarketing
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