longwood university visit project
service design + ux design + user research
Updating the college tour experience for a modern and competitive landscape.
This work was part of a one-year contract position for Longwood University.
My role
I love Longwood University. It’s my alma mater, employer, and biggest supporter these past few years.
After completing my Master’s degree at the VCU Brandcenter, I was given the daunting challenge of reimagining the campus visit experience for prospective students and and families, and just one year to do it.
How can Longwood increase its deposits and enrollment when students visit campus?
Headlines from the Washington Post and Commonwealth Times.
Situation
Higher education in Virginia is in a state of crisis.
Birth rates are lower, student loans are high, and competitor schools are making every effort possible to be the place students spend the most formative years of their life.
Opportunity
Part of Longwood’s magic is that it isn’t like any other school.
Instead of finding a band-aid solution for this academic year, we took a step back and looked at our entire Admissions journey to identify areas for change that would make the most impact for our future Lancers.
Where can Longwood come in during the application process where other schools are not?
Current Visit Experience
Covered the basics, but with two major painpoints.
In past years, Longwood could count on the physical campus to seal the deal.
But campus construction and competition from other schools left our space with more to be desired.
After the initial visit, Longwood might not see the prospective student again.
We needed to find a way for students to experience a unique second visit.
A new visit experience that focused on high impression moments.
We were able to solve for our two major painpoints, while also providing personalized experiences.
FIRST IMPRESSION
SECOND IMPRESSION
1. VISIT WEBPAGE REDESIGN
We scraped away every opportunity for users to direct away from planning a tour, and streamlined their experience to register.
We were able to visually represent each visit opportunity to provide clarity to the users, especially those without prior college tour experience. .
Clicks to tour registration:
Old site: 3-4
New site: 1
This page is where we send most of our visitors, and can find additional information based on their user type.
The lower navigation bar takes away additional barriers to navigate from the page, and gives a direct link to the application.
Using our pre-existing web containers, we were able to develop a feature to showcase the upcoming visit opportunities.
Clicks to tour registration:
Old site: 2 - 3
New site: 1
One of the most commonly asked questions we get in-office is about directions.
By placing our interactive campus map on a page our users are already familiar with, prospective students and families are more likely to find their way around.
Previous Visit Page
Wireframe
2. Admissions presentation
Prior to taking a tour, prospective students listen to a 15 minute presentation.
At every other school, (and believe me, I visited all the other schools) this segment usually starts with a video, and a long list of accolades and facts.
We asked ourselves :
Why should they listen to us?
What do prospective students and families really want to know?
What would matter and help our future Lancers make an easy decision?
Establishing credibility
Most schools begin with an overview of the University, or a branded video.
Instead of speaking at a student, we leveled with them.
Beginning each presentation with a photo of each counselor at 18 years old - acknowledging that we’ve been in their situation before, and are here to help.
A format anyone can follow
We wanted to create a presentation that provides information our users would find valuable - not just reciting information from our website.
We gathered the 5 most common questions we receive from students every day, and used that as the structure of our presentation.
Previous Presentation Slides
3. Campus tour
Something here
Welcome to Longwood U
We had the opportunity to plan the grand opening of our new Welcome Center, Radcliff Hall - which serves as our base of Admissions operations, and first stop on the campus tour.
From Facts to Feelings
The original tour route stopped at every building on campus.
Not only is this super boring, but it’s time-consuming too.
We redesigned the tour to follow a thematic approach:
-
Answer top of mind questions first, by showing "checklist" tour features at the beginning.
(Dining Hall, Residence Hall)
-
Seal the deal with real student stories and traditions, and a visual representation of Graduation on the Wheeler Mall.
We went through a few different routes.
Going Undercover
Thanks to Longwood’s partnership with other public universities, I was able to investigate campus tours at other schools.
*You can see my full review here
Reinforcing the Idea
We developed a Campus Experience Guide to help our hallowed grounds be visit-ready all year long.
This guide served as the perfect balance between our construction Master Plan, (which was long and complicated) and the University Brand guidelines (very thematic and marketing-based) for daily use.
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Brand Experience Guide Pages
1. Post-visit survey
Prior to taking a tour, prospective students listen to a 15 minute presentation.
At every other school, (and believe me, I visited all the other schools) this segment usually starts with a video, and a long list of accolades and facts.
We asked ourselves :
Why should they listen to us?
What do prospective students and families really want to know?
What would matter and help our future Lancers make an easy decision?
Learning
Emphasis on experience.
We saw a 59% increase in deposits compared to the 2019 and 2018 academic years this fall - a direct result of these personalized and intentional solutions.
It's okay to be a student.
I had zero knowledge of the admissions process before working on this project, but I feel like it helped better understand the audience I was solving for.
Solo Dolo.
At the end of the day, these changes to the Admissions visit experience had to live in the form of suggestions, rather than mandates. Learning how to navigate life as a “consultant”, leading a team, and flexing between two different offices on campus was a fun mental challenge.
TEAM
Visit Project Team
Paige Rollins
Johnice Brown
Aaron Sims
Gina Caldwell
Emily Heady
Longwood Student Ambassadors
Campus Aesthetic Committee
University Marketing + Communications
Undergraduate Admissions
President's Office
TOOLS
Sketch
Google Slides
User Interviews
TargetX
Salesforce
THANKS
Longwood University
Christopher Newport University
Virginia Commonwealth University
James Madison University
All the podcasts listened to on my hour and a half commute (Dolly Parton's America, for example)