Education and Discovery

Client

Leeds Trinity University

Project

Reimagining a New Digital Service

Reimagining a new digital service within the education sector.

 

Leeds Trinity University had a very dated website that had a poor user experience and multiple editors who had built up in excess of 3,500 pages of content, the majority of which were dated and no longer relevant.

The overall goal was to create a University website that would become an award-winning digital service within the education sector. The strategic aim was to ‘increase public recognition of the institution’s academic reputation and maintain strong student recruitment.’

The website was presenting an inconsistent online experience which showed a clear disparity between Leeds Trinity University’s online marketing and their offline campaigns. There was also poor integration between their main site and their course management system.

The main scope of work we were commissioned to carry out included producing design and content concepts and handing over HTML design files. The University had decided to keep their CMS as SharePoint and work with their contracted developers on the build of the new site.

Our design solution needed to give the website a clean, fresh, and interactive feel, with the gravitas of a University. The design needed to be responsive and work across all devices and platforms. We also needed to consider making courses easier to find and search for.

We needed to provide a final solution that would work within the restrictions that came with the predetermined CMS and that were possible for the preselected development team to build whilst at the same time ensuring we could be as creative as possible.

The objectives of this project:

To provide design concepts for a new responsive website

To create a vibrant, upbeat website that attracts relevant target audiences

To provide a solution that is easy to navigate

To provide easy access to a search facility to allow visitors to find information quickly and easily

To be integrated with social media

To handover HTML files and instructions to the contracted website development agency

We used a content planning exercise to present an insight-led sitemap with content hierarchy and language/terminology suggestions.

We delivered a strategic design solution around the needs of the University’s target audiences to deliver an outstanding online student-centred experience. The solution we delivered was tried, tested and steeped in insight.

The design of the site and the content strategy we produced has provided a much more intuitive user experience and enhanced the way prospective students interact with the information on the site as well as the way other audiences can and will engage online.

“The creative that Magpie provide for us always reflects the brief but also manages to provide something extra that makes us stand out in a busy market. The customer service that Magpie have provided has been excellent. They have never let us down”

Tania Clarke, Marketing Manager, Leeds Trinity University

In its beta launch phase, the University was recognised as the top higher education institution for good practice in the information it provides for current and prospective students on its website, according to a recent investigation of 50 higher education institutions by Which?.

In particular, Which? commended Leeds Trinity for its performance in the ‘staff delivering category’, thanks to the way the University lists programme coordinators within individual module pages with a direct link to full biographies which include information on the level of qualifications. Which? emphasised that this was particularly good practice as some students may choose a course based on the experience of certain experts in the field.

© 2023 Magpie
Privacy