As Los Angeles’ first and only liberal arts college, Occidental has an unflagging commitment to provide a truly superior academic experience for its students. The problem with their existing site was that prospective and current students found it difficult to find all the information they needed in one easily accessible place. Across all user groups there were complaints about navigation, and content was often out of date. There was also the perception that the site did not reflect the atmosphere on campus or the brand identity.
Strategy
Process Maps
Detailed diagrams detailing the user experience and exchange of data for the more complex features of the website
Design
From low-fidelity wireframes to fully realized designs, we took Oxy through our collaborative process.
Development
Oxy didn't just want to modernize their look, but their CMS as well. We added new features for content moderation, media management and site organization.
Alumni Stories
Prospective students want to know about alumni outcomes and how the Oxy program is distinct from others. The new site’s reworked navigation makes it easier to find that information and puts alumni stories front and center.
Focus On Academics
Students wanted to easily see the different options for programs at Oxy. So we created an academic section with a pop up of all available programs and degrees with a quick link to individual program pages.
Results
-72% Individual Nodes
Over time higher ed sites become a maze of unnecessary pages. We reduced individual nodes from about 30,500 to about 8,500.
+20% Mobile Use
The new site saw a year over year increase in mobile traffic by 20%. This is a testament to how much more usable the new site is to mobile users.
+37% Application Traffic
Outbound referrals to the Common Application increased by 37% and referrals to the admissions portal increased by 26%.
The current CMS configuration was difficult to use and understand. Simple tasks were cumbersome to complete and there was difficulty formatting content within the text editor. With a clean version of Drupal, we were able to migrate content over and make editing easier. Design elements and other components were developed to give editors flexibility when creating pages on the website.
