The monograph draws on our own observations and research as well as research conducted by others, including Noel-Levitz and Royall & Company. Here’s the intro:
Identifying the most important visitors to a Web site and understanding what they are looking for is an essential first step in designing and building a great Web site one that gives visitors what they need and gets the results that you need.
This is especially true when the target audience is prospective students. Understanding how they use a college Web site and making sure that your site is designed for browsing and for in-depth exploration will make your site much more appealing to them. And testing the site to make sure you are meeting their needs not gratifying the egos of a Web designer, president, dean, vice president for marketing or a member of the board of trustees is an essential step toward making the site effective at communicating with this demanding demographic.
Our own experience and research, and that of others, indicates that although your Web site is your most important resource for communicating with prospective students of any age, it shouldnt be the only means of communicating with them. Traditional-age students still value other types of communication, including (especially) print. The majority of members of the class of 2007 said they would rather look at a Web site than read brochures sent in the mail (57 percent), but a significant percentage (43 percent) said they would rather read brochures than look at a Web site. So though your site should serve as the centerpiece of your marketing, its intended to be supported by other types of communications.
I was thinking about this this morning in part because of this report on how online merchants are redesigning their sites. Here’s what they are doing to their sites:
Improved site optimization is the top priority for 72.9% of merchants, followed by clearly organized home, category and product pages at 62.4%, better navigation at 49.4%, improved site search at 47.1% and faster checkout at 40%.
They’re also adding features that site visitors have come to expect, such as product reviews and video:
In the early days of web retailing a flashy design that showcased a merchants brand may have been enough to pique an online shoppers interest. But today web merchants are designing pages that deliver a more sophisticated shopping experience. The Internet Retailer survey finds that 43.3% of merchants will update their e‑commerce sites with video this year, followed by 40% with personalized product recommendations, 36.7% with customer reviews and ratings, and 35% with product configuration tools.
But they aren’t deploying these tools willy-nilly; instead, Internet Retailer says, different kinds of usability testing is essential to know how consumers will react to choices they are offered. Placement can make a big difference in the impact media can make. And we find in our testing with prospective students that they have strong reactions to design. One concept may turn off the high-achieving students a college is trying hardest to recruit, while another may engage them and encourage them to explore a site. Knowing who reacts how to what can help you make informed choices about design, not just please decisionmakers who are 30 to 40 years (or more) older than the target audience.
Michael Stoner Co-Founder and Co-Owner Was I born a skeptic or did I become one as I watched the hypestorm gather during the dotcom years, recede, and congeal once more as we come to terms with our online, social, mobile world? Whatever. I'm not much interested in cutting edge but what actually works for real people in the real world. Does that make me a bad person?