For nearly a century, Waukesha County Technical College, a leader in workforce development, has been preparing students for success within the regional and global economy. Today the College offers more than 150 areas of study, including associate degree, technical diploma, apprenticeship and short-term certificate programs.
Northwoods Experts Simplify Navigation and Increase Traffic to Academic Program Pages
A college website often serves as a school’s main recruitment tool, providing many students with their introduction to academic programs and campus life. The marketing team at WCTC needed their website to create a strong first impression and offer accurate, easy-to-find information for potential students navigating the decision-making process. So, they turned to the digital experts at Northwoods for a website strategy and redesign that would increase application conversions, meet the needs of a diverse audience, and improve the overall user experience.
The Situation
- The WCTC website needs to serve a wide group of users—including current and prospective students, alumni, staff, local business professionals, and legislators—without overwhelming them with information.
- The previous site was difficult to navigate, with more than 20% of pages requiring four or more clicks to reach.
- High-priority content, including the list of academic programs, was hidden behind unnecessary pages, making important information difficult to find.
- Site visitors couldn’t easily identify clickable elements, and large amounts of text pushed key information below the fold.
The Solution
- Northwoods strategy experts utilized focus groups, heatmaps, SEO analysis, and development of tiered user personas to prioritize content and inform sitemap improvements.
- Quick links were added to the top of the homepage to quickly guide users to the most frequently used pages on the site.
- Simple visual cues and movement were added to make clickable elements easily recognizable.
The Outcome
- WCTC has an easy-to-use website with restructured navigation, offering a simplified user experience.
- Improved content organization and the addition of prominent CTAs keep users from having to scroll to find commonly searched information.
- Click depth was reduced to within three clicks for all pages, with most requiring only one or two.
- Visitors to the site can quickly navigate to important pages, with traffic from the homepage to the list of academic programs increasing from 6% to 22% as a direct result of Northwoods’ strategy and design.
Take a deeper dive into the WCTC website design strategy and specific design elements.
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