Services: Content Strategy, User Testing, User Experience, UX Writing, Site Architecture, CMS Development, Ongoing Support
A Small School with Big Ideas
The School of Arts and Humanities needed an updated site that effectively communicated why students should enroll in an arts or liberal arts degree at a university known for its engineering and business programs. The site also needed to highlight the many events offered by dynamic music, theatre, art, and dance programs. I met with the school’s leadership, leading workshops to develop personas and content strategy. Then, I devised the site architecture and crafted content and design to meet their enrollment goals of increasing applications, adding socioeconomic diversity, attracting more international students, and creating a site experience that would showcase the best of the arts and humanities.
Highlighting a Vibrant Creative Community
The goals of the redesign were to showcase the school as a place that’s active and engaging – with lots of fun events, innovative research and interesting people and programs.
Goals of the redesign:
- To increase engagement with prospective students
- To provide easy-to-find information about upcoming events and ways to get involved and support the school
- To highlight the accomplishments of faculty, staff, and students
- To showcase the school as a vibrant, creative community.
Target Audiences:
- Prospective first-year undergraduate students
- Parents of prospective undergraduate students
- Prospective transfer students
- Prospective graduate students
- Community members interested in the arts and humanities
- Prospective faculty members
A Few Highlights from the Home Page
The Header
The header was designed to showcase the very best of the school’s events and engagement. It has admissions-focused content and calls-to-action.
Why A&H? Cards
Three cards designed to entice prospective students to explore programs, faculty, and the A&H advantage.
Wow Factor Video
The video element is designed to showcase a major production or news from the school. It gives movement to the page.
Upcoming Events
A calendar feed with links to the events page
Student Testimonials
A slideshow of A&H student testimonials links to the Meet Our Students page with more bios.
Flexible Promo
A flexible block that can be used to highlight ongoing campaigns or other events and activities that don’t fit on the main header.
Engaging Program Pages Support Recruitment
Program Pages with Clear Calls-to-Action
Users exploring degree programs can easily reach out to graduate admissions to get more info and apply.
Showcasing Faculty
Quotes from faculty promote the school’s intimate feel. A news feed highlights the latest program accomplishments. Content blocks link to pages highlighting the school’s connections to the Dallas-Fort Worth community and alumni.
Showcasing Alumni
Program pages feature links to stories highlighting the accomplishments of alumni and careers for the degree.
Results
The site launched in March 2021 and received rave reviews. Here are just a few of the comments:
“A massive improvement,” Faculty Member
“It’s so pretty. I just want to keep looking at it and clicking around all day.” Current Student
“It looks much more modern and gives a great impression of the school,” Alumnus
Key Deliverables
Google Slides Presentation for Project Kickoff Meeting →
Google Slides Presentation on Personas, User Journeys and Benchmarks →