Below the fold: Architecting a mission-critical department website

Below the fold
Architecting a mission-critical department website
J. Todd Bennett (@jtoddb) & Adam Forrand (@4and)
decimal152

Architecting a helpful (yes, helpful) Student Financial Services experience

A case study about making a departmental website better through user research, information architecture, content strategy, design and teamwork
…at Ithaca College

Ithaca College is a private college located on the South Hill of Ithaca, New York
Founded in 1892
Just over 6,000 students (mostly undergraduate) with 5 schools and 2 divisions

This is Bonny
She is not your presenter, but wanted to be.
Say hello to her on Twitter @bggriffith

The right mix of people
Benjamin Costello
Web Applications Architect
Eric Maguire
VP for Enrollment Management
Various Leaders
Student Financial Services
Bonny Georgia Griffith
Director of Recruitment Marketing
and us…

These people had a problem

Like most private colleges, IC is tuition-driven
Ithaca’s total cost of attendance is $48,707
AND…
They award $145 million in aid each year and
85% of students receive some financial aid

They have very helpful people in their financial aid and billing office…
…but a not-so-helpful website

The background…
Financial Aid and Bursar merged
Each had separate sites, with different CMSs
Tons of redundancies in content
Content repurposed from print
Sites were a maintenance nightmare
Bad user experience for everyone

But they wanted to…
Make financial aid and billing easy to understand and the site easy to use
Minimize maintenance headaches for the staff
Develop a model for collaboration on future sites

Why bother?
Financial aid is a challenge nationwide
Increased reluctance by families to take on debt and borrow money for college
Financial aid is very complex and difficult to understand
Families are in search of better tools to understand the process
Study: “Cracking the Student Aid Code”, College Board

FlickrJeremyBrooks

This was ONE page
1/8 of that page
(Enlarged for your viewing enjoyment)

College Aid Programs
Endowed scholarships
Federal Programs
NY State Programs
FAQs

Flickr: Brandon Doran

Discovery
Flickr: David G Crawford

Lots of meetings
Front-line Financial Aid staff interviews
Admissions staff interviews
Conversations regarding content development and editorial workflows with key SFS staff
A session regarding CMS capabilities, strategies and possible implementation tactics

A focus group with current students
Usability tests of the current Student Financial Services sites performed by current undergraduates
A focus group with prospective students and their family members regarding concerns about valuing and financing a college education
Interviews with prospective students and parents discussing their needs and preferences for financial information from colleges and its impact on enrollment decisions
Jargon flash cards

Also looked at
Entire .edusite
Directories
Index
Search
Letters
Publications
Telephone
24 references to “Bursar”

Student Financial Services?
“I usually call the bursar’s office and have them transfer me to financial aid”

2 content management systems…
… each with benefits and limitations
Required a hybrid solution

Architecture & Content Strategy
Mark Bennett

Content Design

Then we added the REAL content

Content Workflow
Working_Copy_ICContent_1.2.2.1_Ithaca_Grants
Revision1_ICContent_
Revision2_ICContent_
FINAL_ICContent_

Putting it together
Flickr: Comunidade 0937

Post Launch Testing & Feedback

J. Todd Bennett
todd@decimal152.com
http://www.linkedin.com/in/jtoddbennett
@jtoddb on Twitter
Adam P. Forrand
adam@decimal152.com
http://www.linkedin.com/in/adamforrand
@4and on Twitter

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Below the fold: Architecting a mission-critical department website

by J. Todd Bennett

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