The document outlines the findings from an evaluation of Northwestern University's website based on surveys and focus groups involving 22 participants and over 1,600 survey responses. Key conclusions indicate that while users can achieve their goals on the site, there is a significant desire for a more personalized and engaging presentation of content, including an emphasis on campus life and student stories. Recommendations include enhancing the homepage layout for easier access to essential tools, improving personalized news features, and refining role-based pages for different user groups.

1. Northwestern University “Department” Redesign
Web Site Evaluation: Research & Analysis
Online Survey: March 26 – April 9, 2012
Focus Groups: April 2 –April 20, 2012
Report Date: May 2, 2012
Prepared by:
Office of Web Communications
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2. Executive Summary
After talking to 22 different people in focus groups and combing through 1600 survey results from
people across campus and across the world in various stages of interacting with the university
(Prospective Students, Undergrad Students, Grad Students, Parents, Alumni, Staff and Faculty), the
following conclusions were made.
Many external users were able to accomplish their goals. The site was generally seen to be
organized and utilitarian. While this worked functionally, many people noted that they would like
more personification of the school to be shown in the website. The overarching desire was for the
school to introduce itself, to provide a window into the campus and the life found here. This would
mean showcasing more pictures of the beautiful campus, athletics and student stories.
Internally, the students, staff and faculty seemed to feel that the site was not talking to them. They
primarily wanted more personalized news and a finite number of tools. Regrettably, several
common tools were buried within the site and links like maps and shuttles were often missed. As a
result, the search engine, or Google in general, was often used to find these tools: People directory,
Maps, Shuttles, Academic Calendar, Academic departments, Library and Course Offerings.
Recommendations
Make the site more personal
Put a human, purple face on the news
o Clarify the connection between the news stories and NU
o Provide more personal stories about: Students, News from individual colleges,
Construction / Campus changes
Refine role-based pages - particularly for Visitors, Alumni, Parents and Prospective
Students
Provide a common vision for the site
o Example: More photos of campus, more purple, more athletics, more personalized
news
Improve homepage layout to highlight key functionality
Allow students and staff to easily access their favorite tools directly on the homepage; for
example, People directory, Maps, Shuttles, Academic Calendar, Academic departments,
Library, Course Offerings
Choose wisely what content falls below the fold
Improve selection of events on home page and reconsider size/placement
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3. Focus Groups
Participants
Focus groups were conducted in a variety of ways. Small groups or one-on-one sessions were used
when the participants were local to Evanston. Otherwise, the conversation was held over the
phone while the facilitator shared her screen online – this gave the opportunity to talk to alumni,
parents and prospective students in Alaska, Ohio and China. All in all, there were 22 participants
(12 women and 10 men).
Students
6
Undergrad
4
Graduate
2
6
Staff
4
Alumni / Other
3
Prospectives
2
Parents
1
Faculty
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Top Reasons
The top reasons, the participants reported, to come to Northwestern.edu were:
1) News
2) Library
3) People Directory
4) Athletics
5) Maps
6) Shuttles
7) Academic Calendar
8) Norris Bookstore
9) Admissions
10)Peruse Courses
Most participants read the news in the main carousel, across all of the demographics. Eight people
thought that the editorial mix was good as is. On the other hand, several people mentioned
wanting more personalized news. Stories surrounding construction and campus changes, news
from individual colleges, student stories, and news from the surrounding area of Evanston and
Chicago were specifically cited. In general, the connection between the news stories and the
University was not always clear. Simply changing the tone of the news to emphasize the
connection to Northwestern.edu would go a long way toward personalizing the news. The news
center got mixed reviews, largely because both staff and students mentioned that they got this
information in emails. Regardless of whether they were the exact same stories, the general
opinion was that this was duplicated information and could therefore be ignored.
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4. Of the remaining top reasons to come to Northwestern.edu, the following Venn diagram helps
explain who was looking for what content:
Figure 1: Venn Diagram Depicting Who Was Looking for What Content
Summary
Overall, many users were able to accomplish their goals. However, each audience had a different
perspective on the site.
Prospectives, for example, were by and large, able to find what they need and were generally
positive about the site.
Alumni and visitors were also generally happy with the site but generally requested more
information about athletics, news about current students and photos of campus.
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5. Staff mostly came to the homepage to use the people directory, and no one had any trouble finding
it. Their suggestions centered on improvements to the people directory and the search engine.
They did not claim to use the faculty and staff page.
The students who participated in the focus groups mainly wanted easy access to a few simple
tools: bookstore, library, maps, shuttles, and the academic calendar.
Both parents seemed underwhelmed by the site. They seemed to want all the content that a
student would need, such as housing information, student opportunities, courses, student groups
and clubs. One parent noted that there was no cohesive message from the homepage.
The remaining comments from the participants centered on these four areas of the site: (A)
Search, (B) Role-Based Pages, (C) Clusters, (D) Events.
Figure 2: Northwestern Homepage Divided into Sections
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6. Search
Currently, the search feature holds a very prominent place on the page. Almost everyone uses it,
but some claim that it doesn’t “work well.” The people directory is a favorite feature among
students and staff, but alumni and visitors used it, too. More than half of the participants stated
that they came to the page specifically for the people search. One faculty member even suggested
that we default the search to People. It is certainly a beloved feature of the site. However, there
were also complaints of the search being too sensitive to spelling errors. Many internal users
would appreciate some updates to this tool.
Role-Based Pages
In general, the Students/Faculty & Staff did not use their role-based pages, despite admitting that
there is useful content. Many people commented that these pages were overwhelming due to the
number of links. On the other hand, the Alumni & Parents/Prospective students used all of the
role-based pages (not just their designated pages). They commented that the content was useful. A
couple of questions were raised regarding why Alumni & Parents were paired as well as where the
visitors should go.
Improvements should be made to the role-based pages accordingly. The Visitors, Alumni, Parents
and Prospective students would benefit from role-based pages that are more interactive. More
videos and pictures, potentially from YouTube, the WildCam and/or the Twitter feed of pictures.
Several people in this category specifically mentioned wanting to see a gallery of images from
campus throughout the seasons. Athletics should be highlighted for the Alumni and Visitors while
visiting and campus tours would be helpful for the Prospectives and Parents.
The role-based pages for Students, Staff and Faculty could benefit from simplification. Currently
there are simply too many links. The majority of the time they want one of these tools: people
directory, maps, shuttles, library, academic calendar; at the very least, those links should be easily
accessible.
A couple of people brought up ideas as to how to the role navigation could work. Changing a role
could update the content on the homepage, instead of linking you out somewhere else. Coupled
with an easy way to switch between roles a user can peruse the different information more
efficiently. Furthermore, if the site was able to predict or remember what the correct role is then
the user wouldn’t have to expel cognitive energy to make the decision.
Clusters
Campus -This was the most used cluster; library, maps and shuttles were among participants’
favorites. Regrettably, many people didn’t notice it at all, even though they mentioned looking for
the maps and shuttles links. The arts link was mentioned as not very useful.
Join Northwestern -Several people mentioned that the jobs link is particularly helpful but the
only time admissions was discussed was to note that it was redundant. No one mentioned the
Diversity link at all.
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7. Student Opportunities – Only 1 out of 6 students found this section helpful; he used the career
services link. One parent indicated that this is exactly the type of information parents want to see;
perhaps this information should be moved to the parent’s page.
Connect with Northwestern – This cluster was, by and large, not seen by users until I asked them
about it. After examining it, 67% of the participants stated that “Giving to Northwestern” should
be more prominent. Additionally, 21% commented that social media should be more prominent.
Athletics – Several people asked about athletics before seeing that this cluster was even on the
page; others simply didn’t care about athletics. Overall, 43% of the participants thought that
Athletics should be more prominent. Generally, prospective students didn’t mention Athletics at
all, and only one of the students I talked to cared about athletics on the homepage. Mostly the
alumni and visitors held the interest.
Events
Few people came to the site in search of events. Currently, events are not overly useful because
people either overlook them entirely or see the events on the main page and decide they are not
interested. As a result, the main suggestions regarding events were: make it smaller, reduce it to
an icon of a calendar or just include a link to events. On the other hand, several of the people who
did not see the events at all said they wanted to know what was happening on campus. Many
people were looking for student events but were disappointed by the events in PlanIt Purple.
Suggestions for making the events section more useful included separating the title from the time
and adding the category so as to provide context.
Look and Feel
When the participants were asked about the look and feel of the site there were a variety of
answers, but the ones heard most often were:
o Clean, clear, simple, helpful, organized
o Cluttered, redundant, cumbersome, wasted space, somber
Overall, the site was highly functional but lacked a personal touch that drew people in. A couple
people really hit the nail on the head when they said “there’s no common vision – no common tiein throughout the site.” In absence of a common vision throughout the site, several users tried to
paint a picture for us: more photos of campus, more purple, more athletics, more personal news
(construction/campus changes, news from the individual colleges, news for the the surrounding
area of Evanston/Chicago, student stories).
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8. Survey
The Office of Web Communications released a survey on Monday, March 26th to capture important
data and feedback from Northwestern’s homepage audience. The survey was live for two weeks,
closing on Monday, April 9th. A total of 1,600 users started the survey with 977 users completing it,
for a completion rate of 61.1%.
Survey Respondents
Figure 3: Q1 – How would you describe yourself?
The majority of survey respondents can be sorted into two categories:
44.3% of the 977 respondents represented Prospective Northwestern students
17.9% of users were Northwestern Staff members
The remaining data is split fairly evenly between the categories that offer some sort of
Northwestern affiliation, such as current students, faculty, or alumni. Users not related to the
university account for less than 4% of the total responses.
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9. Visit Frequency
Figure 4: Q2 – How often do you visit the NU Homepage?
Most users visit the site 1-10 times per month. However, it is encouraging that the combination
of users who selected 11-20, 21-30, and More than 30 times per month is just a bit higher than
the 1-10 audience.
When we look closer at the individual user groups we find that Prospective Students visit the site
more often than we might think, with 44% visiting 1-10 times per month and 9% visiting 10-20
times per month. The Staff chart shows a steady usage, with only 2 users visiting the site Less
than once a month and nearly 50% visiting More than 30 times per month. The Undergraduate
data is split between users who either visit occasionally or users who are visiting at a high
frequency, with most of the other users falling somewhere in between.
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10. Importance of various content items
Figure 5: Q3 – Section Importance
Both charts detail the average score for level of importance based on a 1-4 scale, where 1 is Not Important at All, 2 is
Somewhat Unimportant, 3 is Somewhat Important, and 4 is Very Important.
Q3 Audience Comparison
Figure 6: Audience comparison for Section Importance
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11. Importance of various content items (continued)
Based on the average rankings, finding Contact information and Academic departments is very
important to the average visitor (see Fig5). This is supported by user comments. Many
respondents have trouble locating the people directory, and once they find it they still have
trouble narrowing down their search to the correct person, place, department, etc. There is also a
strong demand for a clear, simple way to locate the various academic departments from the home
page, and to be able to find department related contact information on those pages.
Campus information & maps is also a popular choice, often accompanied by demands of internal
building maps, more parking info, and a desire for a better visual representation of campus
through photos, videos, and generally more student involvement.
Course offerings and Academic calendars round out the top five, with many users (including
faculty) frustrated that it took so long to locate each of these items.
News does not make it into the top five, but does represent the 6th highest rated category.The data
shows that the Sports/Athletics section is not in high demand. From the general lack of interest in
Sports/Athletics news, it might be true that publicizing http://www.nusports.com/ as a whole
might be a better option than linking individual sports stories.
Based on the audience comparison chart, it is clear that there are similarities in the needs and
interests of the varying audiences. The data tends to spike upwards for all user groups around
categories such as Academic Calendars, Academic Departments, and Contact Info (see Fig 6).
However, we also see a large spread between audience preferences for categories such as
Admissions, Course offerings, Student services, and Career planning. This confirms the notion
that a more robust role-based navigation system could greatly improve the user experience by
providing specific and necessary data to the right users.
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12. Ease of locating various content items
Figure 7: Q4 – Ease of finding information
Both charts show the average score for ease of locating certain types of information based on a 1-5 scale, where 1 is
Difficult, 2 is Somewhat Difficult, 3 is Neutral, 4 is Somewhat Easy, and 5 is Easy.
Q4 Audience Comparison
Figure 8: Audience comparison for ease of finding information
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13. Ease of locating various content items (continued)
The data shows thatNews, Sports/Athletic News,and Admissions are the only three content
categories to score an average ranking of 4 (Easy) or higher, while every other category falls
between 3 (Neutral) and 4. News (including sports/athletics news) is prominently featured on
the home page and therefore very easy to find, despite News ranking 6th/17 for importance in Q3
and Sports/Athletic News ranking 14th/17.
Contact information, Academic departments, and Campus info/maps were very important to
users in Q3, and they are also the next highest ranked categories here in Q4 (in varying order).
However, Academic Calendars, which were second-most in importance in Q3, were 14th out of 17
in terms of ease in finding the information, solidifying the need for a spot on the homepage and on
role-based pages.
Unlike Question 3, the user groups for Question 4 were nearly identical with their preferences.
However, a few outliers did emerge. It appears that Faculty have a much more difficult time
finding Course offerings, University policies,and Employment opportunities than users from
other groups. The data shows that Staff also had a difficult time finding Employment
opportunities, which may suggest that several updates are needed for the Faculty & Staff landing
page.
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14. Issues with finding specific content
Q5 – Have you ever had trouble finding something on the Northwestern site? If so, what was it?
Figure 9: Q5 – Have you ever had trouble finding something?
A number of respondents specifically wrote in an item of content that was difficult for them to find
on the northwestern.edu site (see Fig9). Following the trend from Question 4, it appears
Academic Calendars and Course offerings are quite hard to find. Users are also searching for an
easier way to locate Employment information (both local and abroad), as this was not only
mentioned here but quite a bit in the comments at the end of the survey.
Finally, the need for more prominent picture galleries and videos that detail campus life is still
apparent, as users from several different audiences could not find that information.
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15. Visit frequency for various content items
Figure 10: Q6 – How often do you visit these specific pages?
Both charts show the average score for the frequency of visits to certain pages on Northwestern’s site based on a 1-5
scale, where 1 is Never, 2 is Yearly, 3 is Monthly, 4 is Weekly, and 5 is Daily.
Q6 Audience Comparison
Figure 11: Audience comparison for how often people visit these specific pages
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16. Visit frequency for various content items (continued)
News, the Offices and Departments Directory, Events, Maps, and Librariesrepresented the five
most frequently visited content items (see Fig10). News and the O&D Directory were the only
pages in the Monthly category, while pages like Athletics, Arts, Jobs, Student Groups & Clubs,
Career Services, and Undergraduate Research either just managed to make it into the Yearly
category or fell just below the threshold.
Low numbers are expected for situational or seasonal pages like Study Abroad and Parking,
which scored between Never and Yearly.
The audience comparison shows us that even the most popular categories like News and Events
have a great degree of variation between audience groups, such as Prospective Students (see
Fig11). Other pages like Libraries and the O&D Directory received a high overall rating, but the
user groups maintain very different opinions about the importance of each category. We believe
this supports the need for a more robust role-based navigation system.
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17. Frequency of viewing news stories
Figure 12: Q7 – How often do you read the news?
Most visitors (43%) read the news Occasionally (2-3 times/month), including Prospective and
Undergraduate Students. 28% of users read it Regularly (2-3 times/week), including a large
portion of the Staff. Only 11% read it Daily, and roughly 17% of users say they have Never read
the news. If we add some data together we see that nearly 60% of users either rarely read the
news or simply do not read it at all. This information shows a disconnect between the high status
we give News on the homepage, and the actual need or desire of our users to view that content.
The Staff seem to be the driving force behind News consumption, with most users reading it
Regularly, and nearly as many users reading it Daily as compared to Occasionally. The
Undergraduate audience averages a biweekly reading, while Prospective Students hover between
Occasionally and Never. Many users noted that they avoid the news because it feels a bit too
national or not specific enough to Northwestern and the students on campus.
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18. Reasons for ignoring Northwestern News
Q8 – Why don’t you read Northwestern news?
Figure 13: Q8 - Why don’t you read the Northwestern News?
Only respondents replying that they don’t read the news were shown the question, “Why don’t
you read Northwestern news?”Of the respondents to this open-ended question,First time
visitor/Not a student yet is the top answer, and this data should not be ignored. Prospective
Students make up a large portion of visits to Northwestern’s site, and the News should not be
overlooked as an additional recruiting tool. Based on user comments, we suggest that more stories
on student life and the culture of the campus would certainly fill a gap in current News content.
The remaining data is similar to the monthly Google Analytics reports we see from the
“Department” pages, with news stories taking in a rather low percentage of homepage clicks and
views. It’s true that news stories do not remain in the slide show or the thumbnails for the entire
month, but even the combination of the top 10 or 15 news stories isn’t enough to break into the
overall top 10 for homepage clicks and views.
Many respondents noted that they come to the site to accomplish a specific task, so why take the
time to read the news? Several others said that the University does such a comprehensive job of
including the same news stories throughout multiple emails and publications that they have
already seen the articles and do not need to view them again.
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19. Desired news coverage
Figure 14: Q9 – What types of News do you read?
For the users whoare invested in Northwestern news, the types of news stories suggested were
considered equally interesting. The exception is Sports/Athletics news, which was less favored.
Most user groups are most interested in News about upcoming campus events, with News
about student accomplishments following close behind (see Fig 14). University
announcements/initiatives was actually second overall, and News about faculty research was
important to even the student groups.
Below are several quotes about the News from different user groups.
From Prospective Students: “More stories about students taking part in both extracurricular and
academic activities to depict how a student can enhance his/her own lifestyle while studying.”
From the Staff: “I realize we’re a research university, but not everything on campus occurs under
the umbrella of research, so please balance it out more.”
From the Faculty: “I would like to see stories of NU students who work with people in the
community that are in need. I think it would be both an advantageous experience for the students
and our community, and a very positive image of Northwestern to the public.”
From CurrentStudents: “More highlights on lesser known student groups. A short bi-weekly
feature on a student group would really bring awareness to more student activities.”
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20. Ways to locate information about Northwestern
Figure 15: Q10 – How do you find Northwestern information?
While the Search box on the NUhome page is used the most overall to find information about
Northwestern on the web, this data does not come without a host of complaints. In response to
some of these search issues, our office has redesigned the search results screen. A newly designed
area for 'quick results’ was implemented on the right side of the screen that includes any matches
from the directory, our offices and departments listings, course results, and campus maps.
The People Directory elicited complaints about the query limit on results, which makes it very
hard for outsiders or people with little information to find the correct information. This issue
would have to be resolved by NUIT.
Google search engine was only six votes behind the NU search box, with Prospective and
Undergraduate students using this tool the most. NU Staff rely on the NU search box much more,
so the new search results changes should have an immediate impact. Following links on the NU
home page and other pages was close behind as the third overall choice, showing that all
audiences still rely on standard navigation.
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21. Responses to problems on the site
Figure 16: Q11 – Action taken to solve problems
Roughly 41% of respondents to Q11have never encountered a problem on the
northwestern.edu site, with the remaining 59% experiencing issues to some degree (see Fig 16).
29% of users simply ignored the problem, which could mean that the issues are minor or rather
commonplace when browsing the web. 26% immediately left the site, which could point to a lack
of technical experience and patience, or to a glaring issue in the site. For the users that tried to find
a solution, 21% used the search function, 12% sent an email to the Webmaster, and 8% looked
for a contact number to report the problem.
The answers supplied in the Other vary from switching browsers or revisiting the site at another
time, to contacting someone within their own department or using NUIT for help.
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22. Desired homepage features
Q12 – What types of photos, stories, or content would you like to see featured on the home page?
Figure 17: Q12 – Types of stories/content featured on home page
The users agreed that the focus of home page content should be on the students, with Student
stories/accomplishments receiving 67 votes and Student life/activities receiving 64 votes.
Many users feel a disconnect between the home page and campus life, with 52 people mentioning
that a collection of Campus photos would help to paint a picture of life at Northwestern. It should
also be noted that 49 people would like No changes because the news section is fine the way it is.
Below are several quotes regarding Question 12, separated by audience.
Parents: “Students, students, and more students! LOVE the approach you are using on Facebook!”
Alumni: “Prominent photos of campus scenes that capture the essence of Northwestern.”
Faculty: “Something other than photos of President Schapiro. It has become a standing joke.”
Staff: “The News is too heavily oriented towards the physical/life sciences along with engineering.
Feature more stories about faculty members and students in the social sciences and humanities.”
Graduate Students: “You should probably gear the site more towards Prospectives, not towards
Graduate/Professionals. I only go to the site for pragmatic purposes to find specific information
about maps, the library, etc. I find most of the other stuff rather annoying.”
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23. Recommended University websites
Q13 - Can you recommend other University sites that you like?
The users offered a wide range of website selections, but everyone agreed on the most important
attribute: Crisp, clean, and simple navigation. The top four University sites and their feedback are
listed below. More sites can be found in the “Department” spreadsheet.
University of Chicago (25) - http://www.uchicago.edu/index.shtml
Well designed, sophisticated, appears intelligent and prestigious. Easy to navigate. It is
more engaging, with more vibrant pictures and a variety of colors.
I appreciate how the site highlights what's exciting about the different departments , i.e. the
Arts, Sciences, etc.
Simple and elegant. The site is actually useful, and one of the less gaudy-looking of
university websites.
The colors, design, ease of finding things, as well as free wallpapers to download and
insightful information on everything about the college.
Harvard University (24) - www.harvard.edu
Top nav bar has all of the major categories easily visible and spaced, and the search is
prominent. They highlight stories with beautiful big pictures, and vertical scrolling makes a
headline for each section visible - this is a nice feature for ipads and other touch interfaces,
but not required to still have a good site experience.
Great color scheme, clean design, not cluttered, easy to navigate. The calendar is clearly
marked, and each section of the page is visually separated.
I love the drop-boxes on the links to general sections so that you can click on a more
specific section of the website. The site is so professional.
Stanford University (19) - www.stanford.edu
The optional "extended menus" offer a simple, clean browsing experience. The site is
structured in an orderly manner to allow for easy navigation.
It's very clean; and the photography for the featured articles is beautiful. Plus, there is good
cohesion with the color palette.
The layout is really simple. There's a sidebar for campus events which is really handy, and
the bulk of the front page is university articles like one might find on googlenews. Plus their
"life on campus" photo album encouraged me to apply.
Cornell (10) - www.cornell.edu
The site is informative per department, which NU lacks. It's easy to navigate, the homepage
has great photos, and it's not cluttered.
They take great care to highlight alumni news and student interest stories, and the
admissions blog creates a unique connection with prospective students.
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24. Mobile usage and site ratings
Figure 18: Percent of people who use the mobile home page
Figure 19: Quality of experience on mobile home page
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25. Mobile usage and site ratings (continued)
The mobile site hasn’t been live for very long (and some people still have it confused with the
mobile application), but overall the reviews are Average. The data from Q15 is very balanced,
with a slight tilt towards the Good/Excellent side.
The Analytics data for the mobile site shows that the number of visits has steadily risen over the
past two months, with over 26,000 users visiting the site in March. Once again we can assume that
prospective students are the primary reason that most users said No when asked if they have used
the mobile site.
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26. Additional Comments
From the dozens of comments gathered in the survey, here are several of the key comments that
stood out.
There used to be an easy link to “postcards” from Northwestern; attractive pictures of
campus that were very useful for putting together promotional talks, e.g. for recruitment
PowerPoints. Would be great if something like that was readily accessible again.
It is obvious that you are moving from one area of the University to another, and navigation
between the departments is difficult.
I realize that the colleges at NU are decentralized, but it really looks like it is not an
integrated university when you begin to click around.
I do feel like the website is somewhat of a maze and not necessarily inviting to start from
the homepage.
Make it easier to navigate by dividing the Undergraduate and Graduate sections!
Giving a gift can’t be done on a mobile device.
The website is far too cluttered to effectively display information.
Feature campus scenes prominently. Feature students more on the home page. I notice a lot
of people inquire about what Northwestern students are like. Show them!
Get rid of trivial stories. The high quality stories about significant faculty research or
student accomplishments get buried under pop nonsense.
I’d like to see reviews of past performances of concerts, plays, sports events, etc. An
interview with a featured faculty and student each quarter would be nice.
When I look at the website as a Prospective Student, I want it to be as inviting and personal
as if I’m actually touring campus. It is really important for the site not to feel cold or
uninviting, as if the University doesn’t care about prospective students.
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