Rider University
University Admissions
Rider University wanted to redesign their website to broaden the school’s appeal to prospective undergraduates. The university struggled with misperceptions about affordability, program offerings, and alumni pride, as as an overall lack of awareness of the institution.
I worked on the project as the UX Designer, co-leading user research efforts to create personas, sitemaps, and wireframes.
Project Goals
To grow awareness, consideration, and enrollment through impactful, story-driven marketing.
To foster a sense of community and celebrate the Rider spirit through a strong, cohesive brand.
To increase overall engagement, application submissions, and scheduled visits through the website.
User Research
We kicked off the project by evaluating the Rider website through a series of user research exercises.
Stakeholder Interviews
Competitive Analysis
Heatmap Evaluation
Accessibility Audit
Google Analytics
Intercept Survey
Stakeholder Interviews
Competitive Analysis
Heatmap Evaluation
Accessibility Audit
Google Analytics
Intercept Survey
We presented the research findings back to the client, alongside strategic and technical recommendations that guided the remaining phases of the project.
Personas
We then created personas to better understand who we were designing for. The personas helped us identify pain points and opportunities on the Rider website by showcasing user goals and behaviors.
Sitemap
Using research insights, we organized a new sitemap around top user tasks and stakeholder objectives. The sitemap helped visualize what pages would need to be created, moved, consolidated, and eliminated. It also provided a high-level content outline on top pages.
Tree Testing
We ran a tree test on the proposed sitemap to validate how easily prospective students could find information, see where they got lost, and confirm whether the content was grouped logically.
The majority of the tests showed improved findability. However, we learned that we needed to elevate student outcomes — such as jobs and return on investment — on the website.
Wireframes
We designed desktop and mobile prototypes to demonstrate page layouts, features, and functionality.
During our research, we heard that finding the right program was a pain point for both prospective and current students. We designed a Program Finder that allowed students to quickly search or filter in order to find programs of interest.
We knew students weren't usually looking at programs in isolation- they were comparing programs to see which one best matched their interests.
We decided to incorporate functionality where users could compare up to three programs side by side, making it easier for them to find the right program.
Final Designs
The client was thrilled with our research, strategy, and design work throughout. They were especially impressed by the Program Finder and liked that we borrowed from e-Commerce to create a feature that showed their “products” side-by-side.
The website was launched in Summer 2020.