Campus Micro-site Flowchart (Click to enlarge)

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http://mindomo.com/text.htm?m=0041ad922bab459cb6ac37d3ea548730

More is not better

The first thing you need to understand if you’re in charge with web development, more pages are not better.  In many cases the amount of information and physical webpages on your site can be trimmed down by half.

The more content you have the less likely it will be maintained, the more likely visitors will have difficulty finding what they are looking for, and the more likely you’ll find yourself balled up in a corner crying over navigational flowcharts.

While some will argue that more content is better for search engines… I say, only if you can keep it updated.  Search engines are vicious at removing websites that our out-of-date and always give precidence to fresh content from respected sources.

Our unsorted list of topics

For your review, here is the unsorted lists of topics from my previous post.  New topics have been added at the bottom.

• Campus program overview
• Information about Admissions
• Admission Staff / Office Information
• Why a women’s college?
• Tours / Events (Admission Event Calendar)
• Schedule a Visit/Tour
• Thank you page for forms
• Application Requirements / Instructions
• Apply Online
• Request Information
• Majors and Minors
• What classes are like
• Honors Program
• General Education 
• Faculty Information / Profiles
• Current Student Profiles
• Traditions
• Clubs / Social Life
• Scholarships / Grants / Financial Aid
• FAFSA Information
• Instructions for Applying for Aid
• Loans / Borrowing
• Payment Plans
• Tuition / Fees
• Examples of how a student affords SMWC
• FAQ 
• Ability to ask questions via form
• International Student Information / Admission
• International Student Forms / etc.
• International Transfer Agreements
• Transferring / Transfer Student Information
• Transfer Agreements
• Studying Abroad
• Campus Life / Residence Life / Living on Campus
• Commuting to SMWC / Commuter information
• Quick Facts about the Program
• Student Testimonials

Grouping Topics

Let’s take our unsorted list and try to make sense out of it…

Program Details / Overview

• Campus program overview
• Campus Life / Residence Life / Living on Campus
• Commuting to SMWC / Commuter information
• What are classes like?
• Quick Facts about the Program
• Student Testimonials
• Current Student Profiles
• Traditions
• Why a women’s college?
• Clubs / Social Life

Admission / Applying

• Application Requirements / Instructions
• Apply Online
• Request Information
• Tours / Events (Admission Event Calendar)
• Schedule a Visit/Tour
• Admission Staff / Office Information
• Information about Admission
• Thank you page for forms

Academics

• Majors and Minors
• General Studies
• Studying Abroad
• Honors Program

Paying for College

• Scholarships, Grants, and Financial Aid
• Tuition / Fees
• Examples of how a student affords SMWC
• Loans / Borrowing
• Applying for Aid
• FAFSA Information

Transfer Students

• Transferring / Transfer Student Information

Other

• Faculty / Staff Profiles
• FAQ 
• Ability to ask questions via form

From the groupings above, we need to determine our primary and secondary section navigation and also determine individual page contents.

Let’s look at the items is the “Program Details / Overview” items

1. Campus program overview
2. Campus Life / Residence Life / Living on Campus
3. Commuting to SMWC / Commuter information
4. What are classes like?
5. Quick Facts about the Program
6. Student Testimonials
7. Current Student Profiles
8. Traditions
9. Why a women’s college?
10. Clubs / Social Life

There are a lot of items here, far too many to give each its own page.  We’ll have to either drop a few of these or combine them with others.

The Campus program/overview page should be the homepage/mainpage of the entire section.  If we use the Feb 18-19th concepts, then this will do a few things for us.  First, all paid-placement, banner ad and subdomain traffic will land on this page.  Second, this section’s tabbed navigation will be most prominent and most loaded, so the related pages in the Program Overview section will have a high likely-hood of being loaded.  This creates an emphasis on the Program Overview section that forces us to make the supporting content (other tabs) crucial for answering questions of prospective students.  Because of the “mainpage” status, this page should focus on getting the student to do something, apply online, request information, schedule a visit, or just explore the program more.  

Providing information about “Campus Life” or “Resident Life” is critical for a good portion of our students, prospectives thinking about getting away from home and living on-campus.  Students looking to live on a college campus have a wide variety of questions floating in their head: How much does it cost?, Where can I eat and shop?, What is available on campus?, What will my social life be like?, Are guys allowed on campus?, How big are the dorms?, etc.   Obviously there is a lot of information to address, and so a full page devoted to students intending on living on campus is called for.  Social Life seem a likely canditate for inclusion, but Clubs not so much.  Student Testimonials about living on campus also seem to be a likely inclusion topic.

Or other audience variable, the commuter student also needs information.  But not nearly as much.  Information about lounges, dining, cafes, and location will be most important. Testimonials from commuter students seems likely for inclusion.

SMWC is all about traditions, from ring day to senior diner, events are happening all the time to “honor our roots”.  Having a page detailing the various traditions would make a lot of sense.  Information about various Clubs and Organizations (and a little about their history) sounds like a likely canditate for inclusion.

OK, we’ve reached four “pages” of information.  That’s the maximum the template supports and honestly the maximum we should have.  We now have to merge the other content

Here’s what we have to work with:

Campus Program
[Program Overview ]  [ Traditions ]  [ Living on Campus ]  [ Commuting ]

• Program Overview: Why a women’s college, quick facts about SMWC, What are classes like?, 
• Traditions: Clubs and Organizations
• Living on Campus: Social Life, Student Testimonials
• Commuting: Student Testimonials
• Dropped: Current Student Profiles – this content will either need to be included elsewhere or not created.

Finally, the name of the section (and thus the primary link) should be something catchy.  Campus Program, or Program Overview isn’t interesting, especially to high-school seniors.  Something alongs the line of “All about Campus” might be better suited.

Let’s look at the “Admission / Applying” items

• Application Requirements / Instructions
• Apply Online
• Request Information
• Tours / Events (Admission Event Calendar)
• Schedule a Visit/Tour
• Admission Staff / Office Information
• Information about Admission
• Thank you page for forms

There is a lot of duplication in this section, so it should be easy to combine items.  Information about admission and links to our request info, schedule a visit, and  application form can all be contained on one page.  Schedule a visit, tours, and event information can be contained on a single page.  Which leaves us with Staff/Office Information on another page, and required forms and application requirements on another.  A Thank you page will be contained in this section, but doesn’t need its own tab or navigation item.

Admission
[ Applying for Admission ] [ Tours / Events ]  [ Meet the Staff  ] [ Forms / Requirements ]

Let’s look at the “Academics” items

This is sort of simple, there are four items and we have four available tabs.  All these pages have enough information to fill up a page, so we will go with the above for our four tab items.

Studies show (citation needed) that students will begin to immediately look for academic programs that fit their interests.  Many students already have a major in mind when visiting a college website.  Having upfront and immediate access to the available majors and minors would be a huge plus.

Majors & Minors should therefore be a primary navigation item instead of using the term “academics” or “degree offerings”.

Majors & Minors
[ Majors & Minors ]  [ General Studies ]  [ Honors Program ]  [ Studying Abroad ] 

Let’s look at the “Paying for College” items

• Scholarships, Grants, and Financial Aid
• Tuition / Fees
• Examples of how a student affords SMWC
• Loans / Borrowing
• Applying for Aid
• FAFSA Information

Scholarships, we offer them by the boatloads and students actively seek them out.  Scholarships need to have their own page (there are dozens of them).  Grants can be included with scholarships.

Loans / Borrowing – There is a ton of details that must be posted with loan information.  It might make sense to quickly go over the available types of loans and then link to Financial Aid for more details on a specific loan program.

Tuition / Fees – Let’s make it clear, SMWC is a hefty investment.  Four year, resident students can expect to pay upwards of $120,000 to attend this institution.  That’s a lot.  While we are extremely competitive for a private college, there is no way we can sell on price alone – especially given today’s economy and the location of our campus.  We need to actively demostrate how a student can afford to attend SMWC.  Combining this information directly with tuition prices will lessen the sticker shock of attending SMWC.

Applying for Aid – Information and instructions for applying for financial aid should be clearly presented to visitors.  Merging FAFSA information on this page makes sense, as it is always the first step in applying for fin aid.

We’re going to do something odd here…  Scholarships & Aid and Tuition are related, but also weigh heavy on the list of items visitors will be browsing for.  Therefore, both those items,  while in the same tabbed-menu, will also be included as separate primary navigation links.

Scholarships & Aid + Tuition
[ Scholarships ]  [  Tuition / Fees ]  [ Loans ]  [ Applying for Aid ] 

We now have basically one more primary navigation item (I’m trying to keep it to 6 or less) that we can add.  Out of what we have left, transfer students, international students, FAQ, and faculty profiles – it makes since to go after the FAQ.

So our final primary navigation link will be FAQ, with a tabbed menu that relates to FAQ Items and pages that address the common concerns of prospective students.

Establishing our Audience

The SMWC Campus-based program is SMWC’s true identity.  Since its founding in 1840, Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College has been about educating young women.  Today, the campus program remains exclusive to females, and typically all freshman are recruited directly from area high-schools.  Very few, if any, non-traditional students are enrolled in the campus based program as a degree-seeking students.

So first-off, we have established our audience (no particular order).

• 18-26 year old, college students looking to transfer to SMWC
• 18-24 years old, female high-school/GED graduates
• 16-19 year old, female current high-school students
• Parents/Guardians of above students
• High school counselors (minor traffic)

Now lets establish audience variables:

• Local audience (likely to be available for campus tours / open-houses)
• Regional audience (out-of-state)
• International audience (out-of-country)*

* as a note, SMWC is currently targetting Asia international countries, with strong emphasis on Korea, Tawain, and China.

Topics our audience is looking for

• Will I fit in?
• Do they have my major? (my academic interest/program)
• Can I afford it? (How much is it?)
• How do I apply?

Now these questions seem simple enough, but a few have several variables.  Students intending on living on campus (residents) will ask “Will I fit in?” very differently that commuter students (students living at home and driving to campus).  The “Can I afford it?” question may have different viewpoints: what do I get for my money?, will I get a scholarship?, etc.  Finally, the “How do I apply?” question may have different answers depending on the program the student chooses – the teacher licensure program requires a separate application, transferring requires communication about previous classes, international students need visas and forms.

But in any case, these questions need to be addressed immediately; with links to information being extrodinarily easy to find.

Topics we need to discuss with our audience

Now a lot of information that pops in my head is related to content for these audiences.  We are not yet interested in writing content but do  have a need for understanding what is going to be placed in this microsite.  So coming up with a list of topics for pages and interactive features can go a long way to determining if our previous concept art is workable.

Topics / Pages / Features for the campus-based micro-site:

• Campus program overview
• Information about Admissions
• Admission Staff / Office Information
• Why a women’s college?
• Tours / Events (Admission Event Calendar)
• Schedule a Visit/Tour
• Thank you page for forms
• Application Requirements / Instructions
• Apply Online
• Request Information
• Majors and Minors
• What classes are like
• Honors Program
• General Education 
• Faculty Information / Profiles
• Current Student Profiles
• Traditions
• Clubs / Social Life
• Scholarships / Grants / Financial Aid
• FAFSA Information
• Instructions for Applying for Aid
• Loans / Borrowing
• Payment Plans
• Tuition / Fees
• Examples of how a student affords SMWC
• FAQ 
• Ability to ask questions via form
• International Student Information / Admission
• International Student Forms / etc.
• International Transfer Agreements
• Transferring / Transfer Student Information
• Transfer Agreements
• Studying Abroad
• Campus Life / Residence Life / Living on Campus
• Commuting to SMWC / Commuter information

Interactive Features that could be created

• Campus Visit Form / Scheduler for campus visits
• Contact Us Form / Ability to submit questions to admission
• Dorm Tour / Photo or Video tour of the dorm-rooms at SMWC
• Trees at the Woods / Game / interactive quiz about the different types of trees at The Woods
• Online Tour / Photo Albums / Videos of Campus

Goals for our campus micro-site

It should be noted that we already have an existing campus website, although it is spread across a few different “sections”, admission / financial aid / program / academics / etc.  So all the time we’re putting into this redesign must have a purpose.

Of course everything comes back to one thing – student recruitment.  We need our campus website to be our strongest recruiting tool.  Limited marketing budgets make the web the most economical tool to use.  We need to take better advantage of what the web can deliver and what we can produce with limited skills, budget, and time.

Our primary goals are:

1. Create a better “Call to Action” to encourage students to give us their contact information or to apply for admission.
2. Target our audiences more directly.
3. Improve the usability of the website / increase traffic / increase time on site.

If we break these three items down we get a few more details on what we need to do.  

Addressing goal # 1:

• Make the “Apply Now” and “Request Info” links more prominent
• Increase awareness of the FREE online application
• Lessen the amount of information students need to give in order to get in touch with us
• Re-write privacy policy and increase trust in personal data confidence
• Use forms for RSVPing for open-houses / tours / etc
• Allow students to ask questions through a web interface
• Increase accessibility to staff through live chat and communication features.

Addressing goal # 2:

• Write content tailored for female high-school students
• Remove previous and incorrect perceptions students may have about SMWC (only Catholics can attend, only religious people can attend, classes are all taught by nuns, only lesbian / bi-sexual girls attend women’s colleges, it’s too expensive / I can’t afford it, etc.)
• Link to / use resources online for helping students choose the right college – we need to stop being afraid of sending students to outside resources and even loosing them to other colleges.

Addressing goal # 3:

• Provide all needed information in one place (ie – one micro-site/website)
• Update the site regularly (either directly or indirectly via widgets/rss/etc.)
• Increase SEO / Search engine placement
• Improve meta information (keywords / descriptions)
• Improve URLS (more human readable / more specific / use keywords)
• Improve look & feel / aesthetic features
• Create “landing-pages” for web advertisement
• Begin Google/Yahoo/Microsoft Paid-placement ad campaigns
• Begin local website (News) Banner ad campaigns
• Create campus.smwc.edu sub-domain

First, let me note that the following concept art does not contain a header.  All SMWC pages will have a standard header at the top of the page containing the college’s seal, primary site navigation, search, and utility links.  I have not included this header in the concept art as of yet, for the interest of time.

As a recap, here is yesterday’s concept art (click for full-size rendering)

Concept Art for SMWC's Tier 2 website

Here is where the original idea spawned from (a slight modification of the above)

The same concept, modified to include "Apply Now" and "Request Information"

An improved version of the above, with the black “glass” overlay applied to the entire width of the header image.

Continueing improvements to the image banner links and tabbed navigation menu.

Finally it is important to generate the concept without identifying features, here is the same concept as above without text and link titles.

The improved concept are without identifying features.

The first ‘section’ of the site I’m working on is the campus program. Through some research and common sense, I’ve decided to start laying out ideas to combine all campus program related information into a single site.   Right now, campus information is spread across our website in a manner very much similar to the college’s organizational structure.  Financial Aid is separate from Admissions, as is academics, etc.

To create a more customer-centric approach, it would be wise to put all this information at the fingertips of the visitor, without making them go to other sections (and thus load new navigation, which could be confusing).

Another goal of the concepts is to lay out as much navigation directly in front of the visitor as possible. There are approximately 20-30 “important” pages related to the campus-based program. Obviously it is not feasible to put forth all the navigation options, but it is important to separate the navigation out into what should be immediately display with prominence, without prominence, and only display when x is shown.

  Example, a page detailing the admission staff, with bios and contact information for individual staff members is important, but not so important that it needs to be displayed on every page in the campus-program website. This would be a “display if x is shown” link. The link to “Admission Staff” will only display if the visitor is browsing the “Admission” section of this micro-site. I believe a tab-based navigation system, in conjunction with a standard sidebar would best accomplish this goal. The sidebar can contain links into specific tabs, but the tabs are for the most part out of the way when not related.

See the concept art links below to better understand my rational.

http://www.glockops.com/concepts/Template-concept-021809.png

SMWC's 2000 website brought about many improvements in look and feel.

2000

SMWC had a significant website redesign in 2000.  Bringing a much needed improvement in aesthetics and navigation.  The site had a creative feel to it and contained a vastely improved amount of information.

View SMWC’s 2000 website in your browser (new window)

     

SMWC's website cirra 1997 as view in Google Chrome.

1997

The earliest version of the website I could find was updated May 8th, 1997.

The site was extrodinarily small and relied heavily on images for navigation and was mainly made up of lots of text.

The site contained a dozen or so images and had no ability to apply online.  Like many sites in the 90′s, SMWC suffered from repeating background images…  (my eyes!)

View this site in your browser (new window)

If you happened to stumble across this blog, you probably have no clue what it is about.  Let me tell you…

This is a blog about website development and design planning.

My name is Daniel Mitchell, I’m 23 and a web developer with over a decade (yes, I started designing websites semi-professionally when I was 13) of experience.

I am the webmaster for a small, private college in west-central Indiana called Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College (SMWC).  SMWC is a four-year private, women’s catholic college that also offers co-ed distance, internet, and graduate degrees, as well as, teacher licensures and certification.  With such a diverse group of web traffic, it is challenging designing a site that meets the needs of the college while addressing the needs of all the audiences who regularly use the website.

This blog will be about those struggles of designing a higher education website, tips and tricks I have picked up along the way, and a behind the scenes view of how design and development decisions are made at our institution.

Because of our small size, I wear many hats on the job: designer, developer, instructor, administrator, etc…  In the last year, I lead the redevelopment of the colleges website (http://www.smwc.edu) from an out-dated proprietary CMS to our new hybrid of Contribute Publishing Server with a mix of open-source software.  This blog will focus on the continued improvements and revamping of the website.

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Stay tuned for more, until then – keep coding.