Human-Centered Research for Graduate Enrollment

DILEMMA

Internal IA testing had been done with staff, but redesign decisions were otherwise being made without a clear understanding of how prospective and current graduate students actually experienced the site — what built or eroded their confidence while researching programs and applying.

OBJECTIVES

Ground the redesign in direct, first-hand understanding of student behavior — using in-depth interviews and usability testing with actual students, not staff proxies, so decisions reflected real behavior rather than institutional assumptions.

MY ROLE Information Architect | Content Strategist | Web & Behavioral Analyst | Project/Product Manager

CAPABILITIES LEVERAGED In-Depth Interviews (IDI), Usability Testing, Human-Centered Design Research

PROCESS

Conducted in-depth interviews and usability testing directly with prospective and current students to understand how they navigated the graduate enrollment site, where they got stuck, and what built or undermined their confidence in the process. These findings, distinct from the internal staff-facing IA testing already underway, grounded the redesign in observed student behavior.

User Research

Through the results of higher ed ad campaign case studies, student focus groups, and user interviews - we discovered that student valued hearing from the testimonials of current students. Students revealed that a big reason why they chose Augusta University was because they sensed that AU is an environment in which they can thrive and succeed with the assistance of mentors.

Content Strategy

• We strategized about what would be the most effective format for the testimonial. Through findings in case studies, we discovered that warm, genuine photos of students and mentors facing the camera were effective grabbing the attention of visitors.

• We chose to create student profiles that told the background story of the student, why they chose their major, why did they choose AU and their experiences in the program. These profiles linked off from a Call-to-Action on the landing page beneath the hero image.

• We worked with our program directors to gather warm and welcoming quotes to show to prospective students encouraging them to join the program.

• Lastly, we limited the key benefits to short user-centric and valued-oriented.

Build & Test

• We launched the design after going through an interactive design process. We launched the design into a live environment for A/B test with Google Optimize to see if the new design would get more engagement.

• We tested one variant against the original design for 16 days based on the Avg. Session Duration of users.

• After 16 days of testing, a clear leader was established. The variant design became the clear leader.

• As a result we pushed the new design into production and utilized a similar model on the rest of our program landing pages.

RESULTS

This research directly informed the information architecture, content, and design decisions behind the redesign — the same redesign that drove the 71% increase in graduate enrollment documented in the System Design case study.