Applying e-commerce strategies and best practices in GEM to build your website
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Transcript of Applying e-commerce strategies and best practices in GEM to build your website
admission.umontreal.ca
Applying e-commerce strategies and best practices in GEM to build your website
Presented by:
Marc-Olivier Ouellet, Web Advisor
Université de Montréal
October 22rd, 2014
admission.umontreal.ca
About Université de Montréal (UdeM)
About our Web project: admission.umontreal.ca
Best practices in GEM and latest trends in e-commerce and social media
How to put everything together
Discussions
Welcome!
admission.umontreal.ca
Select current trends in e-commerce and identity best practices in GEM that can be transposed to your University website
Learn to use tools and implement features that will help you measure and evaluate your recruitment efforts without the use of expensive and proprietary CRM.
Determine innovative ways to leverage your current data and online content
Learning Objectives
admission.umontreal.ca
+64 500 students in 16 faculties and affiliated schools
Université de Montréal at a Glance
admission.umontreal.ca
2 600 professors-researchers
465 chairs and research units
37 affiliated health institutions
$526M in research revenue
Université de Montréal at a Glance
250 undergraduate programs (74%)
350 graduate programs (26%)
16 750 graduate students
The most complete range of LIFE and HEALTH SCIENCES programs in Canada.
admission.umontreal.ca
Office of Admissions and Recruitment– Recruitment of prospective undergraduate and
graduate students
– Centralized admission • A to Z for undergraduate
• Collecting and preparing applications at the graduate level
– Separate from the Registrar Office
– Separate from the Communication and PR Office
– About 50 employees :• 35 for admission
• 15 for recruitment
Internal Organization
admission.umontreal.ca
Program is the most important factor for a prospective student when choosing a university*
It is therefore important to keep program information current and attractive.
And distribute as widely as possible:
– online
– mobile
– paper
Key Factors in Decision-making
*EDge Interactive – SchoolFinder Group, « What Students Want », Group Canadian Student Survey 2011
admission.umontreal.ca
New system = end of a Web era
Intranet Grand public
PeopleSoft Current websites
admission.umontreal.ca
Laborious Web Experience
Faculties / Departments SitesAcademic Programs, Courses, Research,
Professors, Student Life, Events, Scholarship, Financing, Awards, Careers
Services / Institution Sites
Social Networks (Facebook, Twitter, …)
IT
SAE
UdeM News
Calendar
Libraries
Peoplesoft
Campuses
Prospective Students SiteAcademic Programs, Admission, Costs of
studies, International Students, Open House, Activities, Publications
Studies SiteStudy at UdeM, Program
Transfer, Student Card UdeM, Student Center, Class Registration, Pay your tuition, Financial
Aid, etc
We had an opportunity:
– To improve the way we present our wide range of programs and courses (undergraduate + graduate)
– To realign our Web offering with the needs and realities of today's students (current + prospective)
– To revise and improve the content of our program catalogue and website pages
– To simplify the way we work internally
An opportunity
Current strengths
E-commercetrends
Internal feedback
Successful change
admission.umontreal.ca
Time before going in production: 8 months– January to October 2013 (Phase 1)– November to October 2014 (Phase 2)
Core HR dedicated to the project:– 1 full-time computer engineer– 1 full-time recruitment advisor– 1 part-time IT / management student– 1 part-time information analyst (Peoplesoft)– 1 part-time IT consultant– 3 outside firms:
• Web and graphic design (Akufen)• Web development (Libeo)• Web ergonomics (Adviso)
Resources available
admission.umontreal.ca
How to tackle this massive task?
© John Furness of Simple Square
Assess your Recruitment Funnel
Public• I discover UdeM (notoriety)
Prospect• I am interested in programs at UdeM
Contact• I collect information on programs at UdeM
Candidate
• I apply for admission at UdeM(and possibly at other universities too)
Admitted
• I’m admitted at the UdeM (and possibly at other universities too)
Enrolled• I enroll at UdeM
Co
nve
rsio
ns
Google Analytics
???
ERP / Admission system
ERP / Admission system
ERP / Admission system
admission.umontreal.ca
Consumer habits in terms of information have evolved
Learn about students’ habits on the Web
– Nielsen Norman Group publication is a great start : “College Students on the Web”, 2nd Edition
Consumer habits have changed
admission.umontreal.ca
Visual Design– Clean, simplistic design, ample white space, with the user
experience in mind at all times.– Less stock photos: photos are a trust indicator for users– Use relatively large font sizes– Build in a Responsive way: sites that load nicely on tablets
and mobile devices
Writing for the Web– Allow users to scan your content quickly for the piece of
information they need without reading all your content.– Tone down the marketing hype– Minimize redundancy
Source: Nielsen Norman Group, “College Students on the Web”, 2nd Edition
Identity Best Practices in Web Usability
admission.umontreal.ca
Navigation and Interaction Design– Choose navigation schemes that are familiar
– Avoid cute and fancy navigation, fancy features just for the sake of it
– Provide direct access to high priority content
– Feature URLs that are readable and memorable
– Organize content by meaningful categories such information type, user task, and questions.
Search and Filters– Feature a simple search box at the top of every page
– Offer simple ways to narrow options and search results
Identity Best Practices in Web Usability
admission.umontreal.ca
Technique to explore a collection of information by applying multiple filters
Start large and narrow
Popular technique seen in commercial online retailers for online retail catalogues, reflecting nature of product data:
– Type, Brand, Price, Color, Size, etc
– Ex: MEC online store
Can this be applied for GEM? Of course!
About Faceted Search
admission.umontreal.ca
How to design our new website?
Dig
Prototype
Consult
Prioritize
Document
admission.umontreal.ca
admission.umontreal.ca
What data do you have? What data is missing?
Look for it in:
– Current websites, HTML pages, CMS, …
– PeopleSoft: reports, tables, extractions, …
– Legacy system, databases, web services, …
– Publications: PDF, word documents, InDesign, …
Make an inventory of all your data
– This will help to structure and build your database
– Excel spreadsheet will do
Digging
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Build a live prototype of your website to help your users see what the site is going to look like
– mockups / wireframes ++
A prototype will force people to focus on ergonomics, features and prioritization of your content
Make many versions and keep an history
Use software like Axure, no coding required!
– http://www.axure.com/
Prototyping
admission.umontreal.ca
It’s not about you: It’s about your audience.
Ask your target audience what they think and what they want
We organized 5 focus-groups sessions :– Students from all levels and from various backgrounds
– Personnel working directly with students• Agents on the phone / at the counter
• Secretaries in the departments
• Admission evaluators
• Communication advisors
– High-school counsellors
Consulting
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What :– To dream the best, most perfect website
– To criticize our current website
– To criticize your prototype
Why :– Help to prioritize information
– Help to get feedback and test your ideas
– Help to improve your prototype
– Help to give you leverage when bringing changes to your organization• “I wasn’t me, people asked for it”
Consulting – cont’
admission.umontreal.ca
Faceted search > program filtering
Big menus with clear categories
Detailed program page with a tab layout
Right columns for call-to-actions & share buttons
Related programs
Inquiry form
Program comparison
Registration with social login
Responsive Design
Some of our picks
admission.umontreal.ca
Students want the info all at one place– Centralized all information on 1 page
– Group the info by tab
Showcase your program– What do your users want to know? Place it first and
foremost
– What are your key selling points? Show them
Position your calls-to-action clearly– Submit your Application
– Ask a Question
– Share / Social button / Link
Detailed program page
admission.umontreal.ca
Filters:
– Cycle
– Domains
– Level of studies
– Period
– Semester
– Study Plan
– Features
– GPA
– …
Faceted search for your catalogue
admission.umontreal.ca
Position filters by order of importance for your users
Ask for friendly URL for your search results
Add links to pre-determined search results
Ask for the ability to share your search results
Add ability to download in Excel your results– Useful for your faculty/department
Use “Apache Solr”, an open-source software that can be integrated to any website to make faceted search happens– Based on the quality, reliability and completeness of
your catalogue database
Tips for faceted search
admission.umontreal.ca
Don’t let your user stop at one program
Help them explore more with related programs or program suggestions
You don’t need a complicated algorithm, find out what other programs your prospective students applied into
– Help to avoid politics!
Related Programs
Built our website in a responsive manner :
– Desktop version (980 px or larger)
– Tablet version (320 px to 980 px)
– Mobile version (less then 320 px)
Fluid design (%)
Same URL, same content
Responsive Design
admission.umontreal.ca
Have a inquiry form with multiple fields to fill out
Store data in a database!– Even if you don’t have a CRM or work with emails only
Better ask for more and have the fields optional– Basic info (name, email, birthday, …)
– Topic / subject
– Program
– Country of citizenship
– Current education institution
– Field of interest
– Desired course of studies
– Permission to receive emails from the university
Inquiry form
admission.umontreal.ca
If you want to create a personalized Web experience for your users, you will need them to register to your site
Before to do so, think about the features that will want them to create an account on your site
– To register to your events?
– To access protected documents?
– To submit an inquiry?
– To submit an application? (for integrated systems)
– To generate personalized content?
Personalized experience
admission.umontreal.ca
Advantages:
– Reduces barriers to register and login to your site
– Permission-based access to rich user data
– Create a personalized user experience
Disadvantages:
– Maintenance: ways to connect to social networks change frequently
Solutions
– Limit number of social networks
– Use a third-party social login service, like Gigya
Social login – Cont’
admission.umontreal.ca
At UdeM, we chose to limit social login to Facebook, LinkedIn and Google
– Our users are allowed to login with their UdeM account or create a local account on our site
– Twitter does not share the user email address
Data that we will collect for now:
– Email, Name, Gender, Language, Birthday, Profile image, Location, Hometown, Age
Link your inquiry with your user registration/login system
Social login – Cont’
Tools to measure
Contact database
Inquiry form
Event registration
forms
Stay in touch form
Login / Registration
ERP
Applications
Link your data
Recruitment Funnel
Public• I discover UdeM (notoriety)
Prospect• I am interested in programs at UdeM
Contact• I collect information on programs at UdeM
Candidate
• I apply for admission at UdeM(and possibly at other universities too)
Admitted
• I’m admitted at the UdeM (and possibly at other universities too)
Enrolled• I enroll at UdeM
Co
nve
rsio
ns
Google Analytics
New Contact database
ERP / Admission system
ERP / Admission system
ERP / Admission system
-
5000 000
10000 000
15000 000
20000 000
25000 000
Oct 2012 to Oct 2013 Oct 2013 to Oct 2014
Pages viewed
Sharp increase in our traffic in the last year
+ 64%
admission.umontreal.ca
Increase of 2:11 duration of visit (average 7:36)
Centralizing data about our programs / courses had a direct positive impact of other of our sections
Inquiries / users :
– 30 000 inquiries in 12 months
– 2 400 new users in only 1 month
– 40% users want to hear from us
• Checked “yes” when asked if they want to hear from us
25% of our visitors are from a mobile/tablet device
Other indicators
admission.umontreal.ca
Distribution of pageviews per section
37%
27%
9%
8%
7%
4%
2%1%
1% 1%
1%
1%1%
0%
Fiches programmes
Admission
Cours
Outil de recherche des programmes
Page d'accueil
English
Test Cursus
Vous êtes
Études au 1er cycle
Nous joindre
Info-conseils
Événements
Études aux cycles supérieurs
Brasil
54% of traffic: programs and
courses + search page
admission.umontreal.ca
Data about our users
– We can export this data in Excel and filter by any fields
– We can use this data to feed our mailing system
– We can combine it with the application data
Data about our programs / courses
– We can track what is popular, what is not
– We can generate other content based on this data
• Printed catalogue
• Printed brochures
• Personalized catalogue, generated on demand
Using this data
admission.umontreal.ca
Developed a site (admission.umontreal.ca) that attracts students and provides the information they need
Built a rich database about our programs / courses
Collect data about our prospective students
Preparing for the future
Rich content
User info
Make better decisions
admission.umontreal.ca
Any question?
Contact me :
– Marc-Olivier Ouellet
– twitter.com/marcolivier_ca
– www.linkedin.com/in/mouellet
– admission.umontreal.ca
Discussions