Developing landing pages for a local college
Education · Client anonymised · Local colleges in Birmingham
The challenge
The key focus of this project was to improve the user journey for the websites, as it was hard for visitors to find a particular course. The search functionality was unusable, and the course pages were hard to follow so visitors couldn’t find the information they needed. On top of this, the new websites needed to perform better in search results, so that courses would rank higher for when a user searched for them. Additionally, the websites needed to be WCAG compliant, so that they’re usable by visitors of all accessibility needs. Lastly, the websites needed to be easy to edit, so that anyone editing the website would be able to easily add or amend courses, and also create new pages on the website
The work
We first started by having a meeting to discuss objectives, user needs and requirements. We realised that the new websites couldn’t just be a reskin of the existing websites, they would need to be structurally rebuilt so that the courses would be easier to find, and that visitors would be able to navigate the website easily. We then started on rebuilding the first, and largest, website. We built the wireframes first, so that we could focus on specifically the structure of each page, and how the search functionality would perform. The ability to search on the website is a key area, as it would be the main access point to view what courses are available. We also created a range of different category pages such as course level and course department, so that visitors could find courses within a particular category, to add an additional navigation option. Once everyone was happy with the structure, we then added the branding, content and lastly imagery, and provided an opportunity for the client to give feedback in between each stage. We then launched the website, and ensured that redirects were in place to ensure a smooth transition in Google to the new website. We followed the same process for the other two websites
As soon as the websites launched, the impact was instant. Visitors could navigate the websites much better, and the client could make changes quickly and easily. We were also able to launch the websites ahead of the deadline, so that they were ready for when students could apply for courses and open days. Also, the websites were now fully responsive, and WCAG AA 2.2 compliant.
