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Intelligence
Webby Award Honoree: Park University
Webby Award Honoree: Park University

Intelligence

Webby Award Honoree: Park University

Apr 09, 2019By mStoner Staff

mStoner is thrilled to announce that Park University’s recently redesigned website is a Webby Award Official Honoree in the General Website: School/University category.

As noted on the Webby Awards site, Webby Award Nominees, Winners, and Honorees are selected by members of the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences from the best work entered through the call for entries. Evaluated against a number of criteria, the work undergoes a rigorous process to win the coveted Webby Award.

Out of 13,000 entries received from 70 countries and all 50 United States, Park University’s website was ranked among the top 20% by the academy, making it a Webby Award Official Honoree.

Now we have a seamless way for people to identify what type of student they are, get quickly off of our homepage and into the funnel, and then get the information they need that’s relevant just to them. The user experience is really thought-out and more individualized.” — Aimee Patton, director of marketing, Park University

About park.edu

Park University has focused on breaking down barriers to higher education for nontraditional students since 1875. Today, the university opens its doors to more than 16,000 students across 41 campus centers; 63 online degree programs; a flagship residential campus in Parkville, Mo.; and a new campus in Gilbert, Ariz.

Park partnered with mStoner with the challenge of setting a single, clear goal for this website redesign: generate inquiries from prospective students. It sounds like a simple enough challenge until you consider that Park serves six separate prospective student audiences from more than 80 countries: undergraduates, graduates, military/veteran students, international students, transfer students, and working professionals. And don’t forget the overlapping interests among these audiences, different degrees within the same field of study, dozens of campus locations on military bases, multiple course formats (online, in-person, and hybrid), and mission-critical content for faculty, staff, alumni, and current students.

Aimee Patton, director of marketing for Park University, and the mStoner team met this challenge with their combined knowledge of best practices in creating rich user experiences. They created clean pathways for each type of visitor, an easy-to-use program finder, simple inquiry forms, a campus exploration tool, eminently clickable calls to action, and a number of other customized features designed for Park’s myriad prospective students. The team came up with five strategies that helped mStoner and Park turn park.edu into a streamlined, top-shelf user experience that’s winning awards and delivering results. Those five strategies were:

  1. Speaking to nontraditional students
  2. Managing multiple locations
  3. Generating inquiries
  4. Working smarter with WordPress
  5. Meeting students where they are


Results:

  • Inquiries via the website increased 17% in a year-over-year comparison of March to February.
  • Applications via the website increased 13% in a year-over-year comparison of March to February.

Park University adds the Webby Honoree Award to an ever-growing awards list:

  • Gold Award, 2018 W3 Awards
  • University Standard of Excellence, 2018 Web Awards
  • Silver Award, 2018 Education Digital Marketing Awards

Learn more about this award-winning website.