Break Up With Your Homepage, 'Cause I'm Bored: Moving Beyond the Universal University Homepage
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Two rows of navigation, a carousel, three news items, three events, three alumni profiles, a social media aggregator, and a fat footer. Look familiar? Ever hear someone say that you could take the logo off your website and it would look like every other institution out there? If you’re cringing or laughing nervously, this webinar is for you. (Ariana Grande said it best.) We'll arm you with the tools you need to make your next website redesign, starting with your homepage, distinct and compelling. What You'll Learn: Why the universal university homepage phenomenon happens. Five strategies for avoiding the “regression to the mean”. The most important research and data to leverage in defending your decisions, educating your stakeholders, and dispelling popular myths about user experience (three-click rule, anyone?). Key steps to take in between redesigns to set yourself up for longterm success.
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Break Up With Your Homepage, 'Cause I'm Bored: Moving Beyond the Universal University Homepage
- 1. Break Up With Your Homepage, ‘Cause I’m Bored Webinar MOVING BEYOND THE UNIVERSAL UNIVERSITY HOMEPAGE Photo by Elvis Ma on Unsplash
- 2. Your Moderator Today: Mallory + Director of Marketing and Business Development + Executive Producer, Higher Ed Live + L.A. Transplant @MalloryWillsea
- 3. Housekeeping: A few starting details: 30-minute webinar + 15 minutes for questions and answers Chat and ask questions through the Zoom Control Panel Tweet during the webinar with #mStonerNow Please fill out the post-webinar survey Check your inbox on Friday for the webinar recording and slide deck
- 4. Your Co-Presenter Today: Voltaire @vsantosmiran + Co-Founder of mStoner + Senior Web Strategist + Chicago Native
- 5. As We Get Started Today’s Goal To arm you with the tools you need to take your make your next website redesign, starting with your homepage, distinct and compelling.
- 6. Today’s Topics 1. How does this happen? 2. Six Strategies 3. Gearing Up 4. Questions and Answers Agenda
- 7. The Universal College & University Homepage CAROUSEL THREE NEWS ITEMS THREE EVENTS ITEMS REQUEST INFO | VISIT | APPLY | GIVE THREE PROFILES BY THE NUMBERS HEADER FAT FOOTER SOCIAL MEDIA AGGREGATOR
- 8. Poll (No judging, we promise.) On a scale of 1 to 5, how closely does your site resemble this wireframe?
- 9. If you take our logo away from our header, we’d look like every other university website out there today. Almost Every Web Manager Ever ‘‘
- 10. How does this happen?
- 12. Consensus, Defined (Thanks, Merriam-Webster!) a: general agreement, unanimity b: the judgment arrived at by most of those concerned
- 13. Designing by consensus will always lead to an average product. Mark Essien, Entrepreneur and CEO ‘‘
- 15. Carousels Are Magic Politics and People Low User Engagement Poor Presentation
- 16. Almost all of the testing I’ve managed has proven content delivered via carousels to be missed by users. Few interact with them and many comment that they look like adverts and so we’ve witnessed the banner blindness concept in full effect. Adam Fellows ‘‘
- 17. More Menus Items = Better “Everything Needs To Be Visible” “At the Top, Because People Won’t Scroll” “With the Shortest Names Possible” “And Because the President Said So”
- 19. The Three-Click Rule Scent of the Trail Overall Usability Ease of Navigation
- 20. Usability tests have long challenged the so called three-click rule or two tap rule. Contrary to popular belief, people don’t leave your site or app if they’re unable to find the desired information in 3 clicks or taps. In fact, the number of necessary clicks affects neither user satisfaction, nor success rate. UX Myths #2 ‘‘
- 21. More News + Events = Fresher Who’s your homepage for? How much do they value news and events? When is that information important? How do they get that information?
- 22. Users Don’t Scroll They Do. Unless they don’t. It depends. On the page.
- 23. 0 4.5 9 13.5 18 Percent of Users Who Scroll to Bottom Homepage About Academics Majors and Minors Admissions Undergraduate Tuition
- 25. “All my frenemies are doing it.” Reason #4:
- 26. Basically, we want their site. If you can give us their site, we’ll be happy. Unnamed Prospective Client ‘‘
- 28. Remember when parallax wasn’t a thing? Until it was a thing. And now everyone is doing it.
- 29. “These are the tools we have at hand.” Reason #6:
- 30. Six Strategies
- 32. All the Promises Rigorous Academics & Experiential Learning Professors Committed to Your Personal Success The Start of a Rewarding and Long Career Strong and Loyal Network of Alumni The Ideal Location and Great Campus/Facilities Interdisciplinary Approach to Learning Fulfillment, Leadership, Global Worldview Friends That You’ll Make For Life No, Really. Really. Really. REALLY.
- 39. “The more you’re able to own something, the likelier you are to create unique content to support it.” Ben Bilow, mStoner Creative Director ‘‘
- 41. Experience Mapping Understand & Explore Narrow Choices & Apply Decide & Accept Commit & Transition
- 48. Why Experience Maps? Develop empathy and compassion Create alignment through a shared frame of reference Collect institutional knowledge of behaviors and needs Identify areas for improvement Maintain focus on users instead of the internal organizational structure Prioritize efforts and focus intent Have a living artifact as a shared tool
- 49. #3: Focus on making an emotional connection.
- 60. #4: Assemble your dream team. Commitment, Not Consensus Representation and Advocacy Expertise and Curiosity Confidence of Leadership
- 61. The Etymology of Commitment (Thanks, again, Merriam-Webster!) "to join together, engage, place in the keeping of, entrust, bring about, from com + mittere "to release, let go, send (for a purpose)"
- 62. #5: Work your RACI. People or stakeholders who do the work. They must complete the task or objective or make the decision. Several people can be jointly responsible. Responsible The "owner" of the work. Success requires that there is only one person accountable, which means that "the buck stops there." Accountable People or stakeholders who need to give input before the work can be done and signed-off on. These people are "in the loop" and active participants. Consulted People or stakeholders who need to be kept "in the picture." They need updates on progress or decisions. They’re not formally consulted, nor do they contribute directly to the task or decision. Informed Definitions courtesy of cio.com
- 63. Agency Marcom Information Technology Senior Leadership Admissions Giving Office Faculty Staff Current Students Alumni Relations Discovery Sessions R A C C C C C C C C Content Strategy R A R I I I I I I I Wireframes R A R I I I I I I I Concept Design R A R C C C C C C C Design Suite R A R I I I I I I I Beta Site R A R I I I I I I I Governance Plan R A R C C C C C I C Functional Specs R C A I I I I I I I
- 64. #6: Leverage data and research in service to your audiences. Analytics Usability Testing Trusted Research
- 65. Gearing Up
- 66. #1: Get your analytics in order. READ GREG’S ARTICLE: Moving From Project to Process Using Analytics
- 67. #2: Commission a site audit.
- 68. Review of analytics and strategic plans Feedback on navigation and points of conversion Feedback on IA content Feedback on photography and multimedia Long-term recommendations Immediate wins Mid-term considerations Review of homepage and key landing pages Review of academics pages What’s Goes Into an Audit?
- 69. #3: Do some user research.
- 70. #4: Tune your program pages.
- 71. Answering the Why As Well As The What Why this program? Why here? What will I be studying? Who will I be learning from? What careers will be open to me? What experiential learning opportunities will I have? What facilities, labs, spaces, and resources will be available to me? Where do alumni work or pursue advanced degrees? What special requirements exist for admission? What scholarships or aid are specific to this program?
- 72. #5: Conduct a usability study.
- 73. As few as eight to 10 participants Half-hour, one-on-one sessions conducted in person or remotely Trends in as few as three of four sessions Questions, answeredMobile and desktop Guided and exploratory
- 74. #6: Run a design sprint.
- 75. Group Decision MakingIndividual Work Persuasive Presenting
- 76. Group Decision MakingIndividual Work Persuasive Presenting Research Sketching Writing Designing Prototyping
- 77. Group Decision MakingIndividual Work Persuasive Presenting Research Sketching Writing Designing Prototyping Establishing Goals Presenting Affinity Mapping Prioritizing Voting
- 78. Group Decision MakingIndividual Work Persuasive Presenting Research Sketching Writing Designing Prototyping Establishing Goals Presenting Affinity Mapping Prioritizing Voting Designing Writing Speaking Practicing Presenting
- 79. How do you get beyond the universal university homepage? Strategy and story. Me ‘‘
- 80. What’s Next?
- 81. Resources Resources Redesign Done Right Resource Kit Partner With Us Dive Deeper Download Explore Take the webinar survey
- 82. Questions?
- 83. Thank You! MALLORY WILLSEA (802) 457-9234 mallory.willsea@mstoner.com VOLTAIRE SANTOS MIRAN 312.420.6778 voltaire.miran@mstoner.com