Enrolment is a critical phase for universities, and their website plays a pivotal role in attracting and informing potential students. Bespoke software development experts, Codiance were tasked with redesigning The University of Bedfordshire’s website as it felt dated. The redesign also needed to help tackle common challenges faced by universities: increasing open-day attendance and boosting course applications.
The website redesign proved highly successful, with a 68% increase in course enquiries, a 40% increase in open days and overall performance that bucked the national trend. To close the gap between intuition and data, they ran an in-depth eye-tracking study, where they could monitor students completing tasks while having their behaviours and eyes tracked in a controlled environment, which helped immensely with the redesign.
From the success of this redesign, Codiance has provided 4 beneficial ways to improve a university website for enrolment.
See their top four most valuable tips below:
1. Implement scrolling, rather than deeper linking: Enhance webpage consumption by optimising navigation. Instead of relying on a large menu to the left of each course page, focus on making each section easily consumable while scrolling. Our study revealed that this approach significantly increased content consumption, especially on mobile devices, making navigation smoother and more natural.
2. Focus on better search functionality rather than homepage links: Maximise homepage impact by prioritising user needs. While the homepage is often considered prime real estate, data analysis revealed that prospective students preferred searching for specific courses rather than navigating through links. To align with user behaviour, enhance the search functionality and prominently feature a prominent search box in the centre of the homepage. This simple adjustment makes it effortless for users to fulfil their primary objective -finding relevant courses.
3. Structure your menus around student behaviours rather than internal structures: Optimise website navigation for user-friendly experiences. Instead of relying on an overwhelming top menu structured internally, align it with user behaviour by focusing on search patterns. In our case, restructuring the menu based on search behaviours rather than internal structures proved to be a game-changer. This simplified navigation and increased user engagement, making contingent browsing more straightforward and compelling.
4. People Centric Design: When embracing people-centric design, looking beyond click data is crucial. While click data provides valuable insights, it only reveals a limited perspective. Consider incorporating methods like eye-tracking studies to gain a deeper understanding of user behaviour. This approach goes beyond surface interactions, offering a more comprehensive view that can uncover insights not captured by click data alone.
For the full tips from the team at Codiance, please visit 3 ways to improve your university website for enrolment (codiance.com) and get in touch for further expert commentary.
