Creating an online experience that rivals an on-campus visit

JOHNSON & WALES UNIVERSITY

In 2020, COVID-19 forced almost every industry to reinvent its basic operations. Higher education was no exception. Like all colleges, Johnson and Wales University needed a way to let prospective students get a taste of the institution when campus visits were impossible. We swiftly established a robust online stand-in for campus tours, faculty events, and connections with current students. JWU’s "Explore from Home" experience helped students and parents make critical decisions throughout the admissions journey.

consumer research
UX/UI strategy
content strategy
website development

We began by digging deep into our research

We began by digging deep into our research

Less about the research

Knowing how critical it would be to offer prospective students everything they were looking for, we dove into the research process by leading four separate focus groups. We carried out three with students and one with another all-important audience, the parents. These fact-finding sessions gave us tremendous insight into what people were looking for from the virtual experience.

We learned that different user journeys would be required depending on where someone was in their decision-making process. We learned the varied ways in which people form their lists of possible schools. And we learned that students felt much more comfortable exploring a college online than their parents. But our biggest finding? More than anything, new students wanted to be able to see themselves as a JWU Wildcat.

We created a cohesive content and UX strategy

Less about the strategy

To capitalize on our research findings, we needed to create an experience that represented all facets of life at JWU and allowed site visitors to self-select the user journey that was right for them. We built out a role-based architecture that aligned with the four phases of the admissions process: prospect, applied, accepted and enrolled. Working in concert with that UX structure was our content strategy. By speaking clearly and directly to students at each stage of the decision-making process, we demonstrated our understanding of their concerns as they navigated their college search.