Guidelines for a Campus Website Refresh

Delivered to Mount Sac Collegge

Transcript

1. #AItraining Brett Pollak | University of California, San Diego | bpollak@ucsd.edu Website Refresh best practices, governance, stats, predictions and other good stuff 
2. 2 My Background • Director, Campus Web Office (CWO) at UC San Diego • 5 ½ years at UC San Diego • Web Development field since ’01 • 4 years supporting mobile devices WHO AM I?
3. 3 Experience delivering to higher education • High Ed Web • EduWeb • Eduniverse • Higher Ed Live • LINK Journal for Higher Education WHO AM I?
4. Campus Web Office
5. 5 About the CWO… Chancellor Business Affairs Admin Computing CWO Academic Affairs Health Sciences Communications
6. 6 Qualifying academic & administrative units can host and maintain their websites with us free of charge Our Services
7. 7 OUR MODEL AND PHILOSOPHY • Funded centrally by state money - No recharge • Emphasis on self-service, self-sustaining technology • We provide the tools, training, and frameworks • Clients provide the content and maintenance ABOUT THE CWO…
8. Manage over 140 websites in the CMS
9. Support over 900 CMS users
10. cwo.ucsd.edu
11. 11 A BRIEF HISTORY OF WEB DESIGN The past and present…
12. 12 • Single text column using HTML • Mostly text and hyperlinks • Embedded images around 1994 Early 1990’s Web Design
13. 13 • Table based layouts allowed for multiple columns • Websites were a combination of sliced images and HTML Mid 1990’s Web Design ucsd.edu in 1995
14. 14 Late 1990 & 2000’s Web Design • Animation • Flash • CSS/JavaScript • Web 2.0!
15. June 9, 2007
16. 2005 2013
17. 17 2011 2012 2013 Page views from mobile devices
18. 18 2011 2012 2013 Percent of views from mobile devices
19. 19 In 3 years 50% of website views will come from mobile Prediction
20. m.ucsd.edu Responsive website
21. 68,351 Downloads 54,091 Downloads
22. 22 May ‘11 – ‘12 3.1 M May ‘12 – ‘13 UCSD mobile Page views
23. LEARNING OUTCOME QUESTIONS 23
24. 24 WHAT DO THEY EXPECT? Prospective Students
25. Spring 2013 phone survey of 2,018 college-bound high school juniors & seniors
26. 26 78% of respondents have regular access to a mobile device 43% of students reported using their mobile devices as the primary device for browsing the web Trends in college bound students’ research
27. 27 Students felt the website impacted their perception of the institution How is your institution perceived?
28. 28 82 percent said they preferred to look at college Web sites on a PC/laptop instead of a mobile device. However, 68 percent said they have viewed college Web sites on a mobile device. Trends in college bound students’ research
29. 29 The impact of mobile devices
30. 30 College website is most influential to prospective students but it’s not the only thing they consider What influences prospective students?
31. 31 2012: 79% of respondents used Facebook in their research 2013: 67% of respondents use Facebook in their research Facebook is losing steam…
33. 33 Top college planning websites 1. CollegeXpress 2. College Board 3. Peterson's 4. The Princeton Review 5. FastWeb 6. U.S.News & World Report College Planning Websites
36. 36 Top 5 things prospective students are looking for 1. Does the school offer what I’m interested in academically? 2. How much does it cost? 3. What are the dates and deadlines for enrollment? 4. How do I apply? 5. What’s campus life like? In Summary, your website is important
37. 37 Consider having entry points for students who are at different stages of the admissions process The impact of mobile devices
38. 38 Allow prospective students to interact with your site and calculate cost of attendance The impact of mobile devices
39. 39 • Optimize the user experience for mobile devices using adaptive or responsive design • Allow prospective students to opt-in to receive communications via email, text, and social media • Ensure email communications also are designed and tested for mobile • Your website says a lot to prospective students about your institution. Errors and unprofessional content or images hurt your brand. • Keep content fresh and showcase what makes your university unique • Make the top content accessible through clear action paths Conclusions
40. LEARNING OUTCOME QUESTIONS 40
41. 41 IDENTIFYING EXAMPLES & BEST PRACTICES
42. 42 Clear action paths to Apply and visit the campus Examples & best practices
43. 43 Examples & best practices
44. 44 Examples & best practices Think from the prospective students’ point of view. Consider the stage of applying they may be in
45. 45 Examples & best practices Use infographics to showcase unique characteristics about your university
46. 46 Examples & best practices Use responsive web design to make sure your site is optimized for all resolutions
47. 47 • One website who’s layout automatically conforms to the resolution of the device accessing the site • One set of code to maintain • Cross platform: works on all modern browsers • Frameworks include Twitter Bootstrap, Foundation3, HTML5 Boilerplate, etc. RESPONSIVE WEBSITE
48. 48 • SEO friendly: duplicate content isn’t indexed twice like with mobile site • Link friendly: sending or sharing links are optimized for the device the recipient uses • Optimizes website not just for mobile but for larger screens RESPONSIVE WEBSITE
49. LEARNING OUTCOME QUESTIONS 49
50. 50 A PROCESS FOR REFRESHING YOUR SITE
51. 51 Your website is not an encyclopedia for your school Less is more Your audience doesn’t read, they scan your site The content you provide is far more important to your users than your logo or any images Website refresh mantras
52. 52 Your website is not for you (or your boss) Identify your key target audience
53. 53 A website for everyone serves no one very well. • Current Students? • Prospective Students? • Parents? • Staff? • Faculty? • Alumni? Prioritize your audience
54. 54 1. Does the school offer what I’m interested in academically? 2. How much does it cost? 3. What are the dates and deadlines for enrollment? 4. How do I apply? 5. What’s campus life like? Develop 2-3 goals for the site
55. 55 Examples: 1. Funnel prospective students to our Admissions site for conversion to our CRM 2. Showcase achievements to enhance prestige to all audiences Develop 2-3 goals for the site
56. 56 Student workers are a great resource for feedback Doesn’t have to be formal Involve them in the redesign Engage your users
57. 57 Websites are one component of marketing
58. 58 Should map to your website goals Shouldn’t be about how the website looks but how it works Put content goals ahead of design goals Develop project goals
59. 59 Be Specific… Words like “streamline” usually indicate the site has too much text/clutter Optimize the website for mobile devices Develop project goals
60. 60 Use analytics to determine frequently accessed content on your site Feature appropriate content during stages of the admissions cycle Benchmark with analytics
61. 61 Look at user behavior flow to identify how prospective students are traversing the site Ensure this flow meets your expectations If not, adjust Analytics
62. 62 Determine your level of mobile traffic This info can be used to pitch senior mgmt. to fund RWD Analytics
63. 63 Measure page load time to be sure you’re not losing visitors Users expect page load times of less than 5 seconds Analytics
64. 64 Google has some nifty new tools to suggest how to optimize your site The tools link from Google Analytics Analytics
65. 65 Analytics Google has some nifty new tools to suggest how to optimize your site The tools link from Google Analytics
66. 66 In-page analytics visually shows where users are clicking Remove buttons or links nobody uses to reduce cognitive load Analytics
67. 67 Use real-time analytics to see the current impact of admissions cycles or marketing campaigns Analytics
68. 68 Judging by analytics, how well does your current site align with your site goals? Are users going to the pages you expect them to? Are there pages that can be eliminated? Perform a gap analysis
69. 69 Categorize content in a logical way Logical to your users, not necessarily to you Think the way your users think Create a website outline
70. 70 Don’t use jargon your target audience won’t understand Avoid acronyms Create a website outline
71. 71 Keywords are excellent top navigation labels Search terms are good resources for navigation labels Create a website outline
72. 72 Rewrite your content outside of the CMS (Word documents) to help focus on the messaging and not the formatting You can more easily route it around and/or refine it Write (or rewrite) the content
73. LEARNING OUTCOME QUESTIONS 73
74. 74 VISIONING EXERCISE
75. LEARNING OUTCOME ACTIVITY 75 What would the Mt. SAC website be like if we had the power to make it any way we wanted? Visioning Exercise
76. LEARNING OUTCOME ACTIVITY 76 How can the website support prospective students? Visioning Exercise
77. LEARNING OUTCOME ACTIVITY 77 How can the website support current students? Visioning Exercise
78. LEARNING OUTCOME ACTIVITY 78 How can the website support employees? Visioning Exercise
79. LEARNING OUTCOME ACTIVITY 79 How can the website support alumni and the broader community? Visioning Exercise
80. 80 GROUNDING QUESTIONS
81. LEARNING OUTCOME ACTIVITY 81 The top 3 priorities for the web project should be ... Grounding Exercise
82. LEARNING OUTCOME ACTIVITY 82 It is important the Mt. SAC web should be ... Grounding Exercise
83. LEARNING OUTCOME ACTIVITY 83 When using the web to speak to students, Mt. SAC should remember... Grounding Exercise
84. LEARNING OUTCOME ACTIVITY 84 Potential challenges the Web Redesign should consider are... Grounding Exercise
85. LEARNING OUTCOME ACTIVITY 85 When updating the web, please don't change ... Grounding Exercise