Results

• Increased traffic the Majors site homepage by 32%.
• Page Views increased for almost every major page YOY Q1
• Moved up in Google Search Rankings
• Greatly improved content ops for this site

Company Overview

Western Washington University

Western Washington University is a mid-size, public university in Bellingham, WA. Total enrollment is around 16,000 students.

The Office of Admissions oversees the Majors Site, one of the highest traffic sites used for undergraduate recruitment. Prospective students use it to browse the majors and programs offered by the university.

Availability of major is one of the most important factors in the college search process. Therefore, it’s crucial to make this part of the customer journey as easy as possible.

The Majors Site was launched in 2016, and I’ve been responsible for designing and implementing the bulk of the changes to it since 2019.

What wasn’t working

• 200+ items in an alphabetical list with no way of filtering or sorting
• Non-tabular information displayed in a table
• Only wide-screen compatible, not responsive for mobile-sized screens

Problems

• hard to scan-read homepage
• hard to search homepage
• redundant content on degrees pages from poor content strategy and lack of resources
• poor Google search rankings

Solution: Re-centering User Experience

College students ask “What’s your major?”, not “What’s your degree program?” Interest clusters are important to their college search.

The first logical step was to consolidate the 200+ degree programs into majors.

The second was to assign an interest category tag to each major. A single majors can be tagged with multiple categories.

Solution: Standardizing Content in Drupal

Easier to create templates for. Easier for copywriters to manage content.

1. I identified what content was shared by each major: degree programs, advisors, academic departments, etc.
2. I created a new content type in Drupal with fields that fit the type of data to be stored, and multiple taxonomies for reusable data like contact info for advisers.
3. This made content easier to manage: changes could be made in one place and updated in many, filter-based dynamic content, etc.

Process

• Gathering screenshots into FigJam and jotting down immediate thoughts
• 2 quick workshops: immediate team and university-wide marketing
  • Discuss what was/wasn’t working
  • Identify specific components and patterns that would support our goals and resonate with our audience

Outcomes

Had a good feel for the different kinds of interaction animations and patterns to explore during the design phase.

Decreased the amount of time it would have taken to design and prototype more than 2 different options by being able to focus on specific UI patterns.

Could point to specific examples from other institutions/companies when questioned by administration-level stakeholders.

Process

Throughout this process I kept our front-end developer in the loop so she could let me know if something would be too difficult to implement before the deadline. Our accessibility developer was also included in the design review process. This ensured that we wouldn’t waste time on anything that wasn’t accessible.

1. Draft 2–3 low fidelity wireframes
2. Review with stakeholders
3. Create a high fidelity mock-up and prototype any interaction animations
4. Review with stakeholders
5. Share final design to front-end developer

Option 1: Individual major cards

Option 1 cards (small-screens): No hover state for mobile means adjusting elements. Strict character limits on the synopsis ensure that the card functions correctly at all screen-sizes.

Option 2: Interest/program sections

Option 2 layout: Single column, large cards for each Interest (12 total). Was initially preferred by some internal stakeholders for the SEO possibilities (Carnegie Dartlet, who was consulting for our search campaigns, was strongly advocating for more text on the homepage).

Option 2 cards: Example of how they would stack on mobile

Wireframe Review

Option 2: What was working

• Stakeholders liked the large vibrant images
• SEO expert liked that there was more text on the homepage for keywords
• Shorter than previous version with alphabetical list

Option 2: What wasn’t working

• Not searchable or sortable
• User would have to read through multiple sections to see if the major they were interested in had been put into that interest category
• Our idea of what category something belongs to might not match a user’s expectations

Final Design (High-fidelity mock-up of Option 1)

Header

• New splash header is shorter
• Headline box is anchored to bottom of image and has a simplified arrow button just like the cards below.

Grad School

• Moved this to be higher on the page to support the graduate school’s goals
• Previously, this was at the bottom of the page with a list of interdisciplinary items

Filter and Search

• New ways to search, by keyword and area of interest
• Dedicated keyword field delivers consistent search results that can be customized

Cards

• Cards with attention-grabbing imagery have replaced the text-only alphabetical list
• On wide-screens, the cards have a simple animation on hover that reveals a short tagline for the major

Keyword search

Originally, we pointed to an existing field (major synopsis) for the keyword search to reference.

After getting faculty feedback that some majors weren’t showing up as expected in search, I knew we had to fix it. We didn’t have in-house writers to rewrite the Major synopses to incorporate keywords so they’d show up in search. I decided to create an additional field in the Majors content type just for keyword search terms.

This change met expectations about search results and campus stakeholders were pleased.

Interest search

I looked over all majors with the SEO expert and created interest categories. We then determined which categories applied to each major. I forwarded the list to the Digital Marketing Assistant to implement by filling in the added fields in the content type.

On-boarding for Admissions

To support content governance for the team who oversees the Majors site, we needed thorough documentation. This was created in ClickUp, our project management system.

IT Project Management with ClickUp

ClickUp is the Project Management System that Admissions Comm team uses. I was the lead of the team that implemented it and am the go-to support person at WWU.

On-boarding for SMEs and Other Stakeholders

Internal Emails

• For awareness and outreach
• Sent quarterly and when I get a request or inquiry from a department.

Google Doc Template

This Google Doc is able to be shared with anyone in case of external stakeholders.

This version has been stable and working for over a year, but it went though a lot of testing and changes to fit it to faculty stakeholder needs. For example: I found that faculty needed long descriptive fields for them to feel comfortable using this template unaided.

Key Features

• Heading structure enables easy navigation and mirrors the current major page structure.
• Clear character limits (when needed)
• Detailed field descriptions about purpose and tone, with suggestions about possible content.

Presentations to Academic Advisors

• Quarterly presentations to academic advisors so new employees are aware of the site
• Give them a sense of ownership over the content, it’s a collaboration not a mandate from on-high
• Chance to get feedback from internal users

SharePoint Page

Internal site only accessible to employees of Western Washington University. This has been shared widely through emails and workshops. Content is geared towards academic advisors, department managers, and faculty.

Page Content and Layout

• Intro to the project
• Purpose of the site and content on it
• Link to request changes
• Link to content template
• Links to helpful tools
• Team roles and how to contact us