Determining the Need for Testing

The lifeline of any institution of higher learning is its admissions department, which is charged with reaching, recruiting and retaining multigenerational students from around the globe. The Kent State University Admissions team is equipped with multifaceted tools to accomplish its goals. The Kent State Admissions website is one of the most important tools for attracting new students, who are embarking on their educational journey. Therefore, the user’s journey on the website should be straightforward and compliment all of the marketing efforts.

THE PROBLEM

Therein lies the problem Kent State University faced, as the website, or rather websites for admissions were plentiful, one for each admit type: undergraduate, graduate, international and transfer – in addition to a main admissions website. This created multiple messages, duplicate information, content disparities, search result conflicts and an all-in-all complicated user journey.

The Admissions website can be made more useful by consolidating the site and providing audience-specific information.

  • It currently includes multiple websites

  • This is creating a bumpy user journey - pointing users to different sections of the site that may or may not be aligned with one another.

The Challenge

Simplifying the user experience and streamlining its content into one cohesive, redesigned admissions website became the challenge.

VIEW: PREVIOUS SETUP OF WEBSITES FOR ADMISSIONS

Issue: Previously there were multiple admissions website for each admit type with no connectivity. Search results would at times return the wrong admit type due to naming conventions being similar. This created confusion in the user’s journey.

Initial Questions

The following questions were addressed during the study, and focused on the improvement areas.

  1. How do users navigate the Admissions website and complete common tasks?

  2. What are users looking for, specific to their admit type?

  3. How can we best utilize the feedback to improve the website?

Redesign-Specific Goals

  • Briefly understand the user’s mindset and journey through the admissions process, as well as their experience with Kent State thus far.

  • Get general feedback and reactions to the new visual design of the website.

  • Understand how users navigate from the Kent State home page to arrive at the Admissions website, and then evaluate how they navigate through the Admissions website to complete common tasks.

  • See how effective the website is for users in search of specific information and activities, such as scheduling a tour, completing the online application and meeting their admissions counselor.

  • Get feedback on content and functionality that could be improved or is missing.

Overall User Research Goal

Successfully complete user research using a combination of website analytics, competitive analysis, user interviews, usability testing, web best practices, web accessibility requirements, admit type personalization, information architecture analysis and content consolidation analysis.