Graduate Admissions Website for UMBC
Design and launch a new Graduate Admissions website for the University of Maryland, Baltimore County to use in graduate student recruitment and graduate school marketing initiatives.
Data Analytics, Content Strategy, Site Mapping, UI Design, High-Fidelity Prototyping, and Testing
Summary
The University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) needed a Graduate Admissions website to be created, as part of a larger initiative to migrate all admissions, faculty research, and other top-level content onto a new Wordpress site to improve SEO, drive new marketing initiatives, and refine recruitment analytics.
My Roles & Responsibilities
Review analytics to determine top priority admissions pages to migrate
Create site map and content strategy
Design and prototype high-fidelity mockups to be used to pitch to leadership
Build live pages on Wordpress environment, QA checking before launch
Track website performance post-launch, using CrazyEgg (analytics tool)
Present insights to leadership
Project Scope
Migrate admissions-only related content onto a new website with a user experience that prioritizes prospective graduate students and promotes the university.
Team Members: Director of Digital Strategy, Graduate Marketing Coordinator
Timeline: 4 months (April - July 2022)
Problem
UMBC’s graduate admissions content was previously displayed on a general graduate school website that also served faculty, staff, and current students, which made the user experience for prospective graduate students cumbersome to navigate.
Audience
Prospective Graduate Students
4-year college students from in-state or out-of-state
International students
UMBC seniors
Solution
Migrate admissions-only related content onto a new website with a user experience that prioritizes prospective graduate students and promotes the university.
Discovery & Research
The top priority graduate admissions content to migrate were determined by reviewing page views on UMBC’s Google Analytics Looker Studio dashboard.
Some of the content on these pages had to be consolidated or moved to new/other pages, with final decisions made at the site mapping phase.
Content Strategy
Reviewed previous website structure to help determine a new site map
Only top-level admissions content included on new site map
Ideation & Content Reorganization
Sketched general ideas to focus on content structure before visual design
Combined content from previous website onto single pages for new website
Design Requirements
Design for accessibility, and include keywords in headings for SEO
Prepare to accommodate continual content updates for each semester and application period
Stay visually consistent with the Undergraduate Admissions website
Meet UMBC’s branding and style guide requirements
UI Components and Mockups
High-Fidelity Prototyping
Designed and prototyped high-fidelity mockups to be used to pitch to leadership
Development & Launch
At the time of development in 2022, desktop-view was prioritized. These pages were built using UMBC.edu’s Wordpress Gutenberg web environment, which included pre-programmed mobile responsive components and blocks. Our team had not yet hired a front-end developer to assign unique display cases for mobile or tablet view. Those UI refinements were set to begin in 2024.
Homepage
Admitted Students Checklist
Accelerated Programs
International Applicants
Funding & Scholarships
Post-Launch Performance Tracking
Tracked website performance post-launch, using CrazyEgg heatmapping | View Detailed Heatmap Example
Presented insights to UMBC Leadership to advocate for the use of UX processes in future web projects | View Presentation PDF