Below the foldArchitecting 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 CostelloWeb Applications Architect

Eric MaguireVP for Enrollment Management

Various LeadersStudent Financial Services

Bonny Georgia GriffithDirector of Recruitment Marketing

and us…

These people had a problem

Like most private colleges, IC is tuition-drivenIthaca’s total cost of attendance is $48,707

AND…They award $145 million in aid each year and85% 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

Flickr JeremyBrooks

This was ONE page

1/8 of that page

(Enlarged for your viewing enjoyment)

Endowed scholarships

Federal Programs

NY State Programs

FAQs College Aid Programs

Flickr: Brandon Doran

Discovery

Architecture & Content Strategy

Content Design

Implementation

Testing

Discovery

Flickr: David G Crawford

• 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

Lots of meetings

• 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 .edu site•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”

WPM LCMS Ease of use Deeper site

HTML snippets More robust versioning

Control over who has access Approval workflows

One place for everything

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

decimal152 Office of SFS Communications

Working_Copy_ICContent_1.2.2.1_Ithaca_GrantsRevision1_ICContent_Revision2_ICContent_FINAL_ICContent_

Content Workflow

Flickr: Comunidade 0937

Putting it together

Post Launch Testing & Feedback

J. Todd Bennett

todd@decimal152.comhttp://www.linkedin.com/in/jtoddbennett @jtoddb on Twitter

Adam P. Forrand

adam@decimal152.comhttp://www.linkedin.com/in/adamforrand @4and on Twitter