(opens new window) (opens new window)

Another major milestone at the university was reached recently with the launch of the new College of Nursing (opens new window) website. It is one of the last few school/colleges to be integrated into the main university Web environment. The College of Nursing is now taking advantage of all the central news, events, content and profile resources to increase their visibility and usability.

Design

The previous Nursing website had not changed in the past few years. Items were continuously being added to the homepage and menu which resulted in an overgrown and cluttered site. We set out to change all that with a clean look that focused the visitor's eyes.

Since the primary audience for the homepage is prospective students we highlighted the main action items we think they should take in a left side menu right on the homepage. In addition a large centerpiece area gives the college a place to showcase students, faculty and alumni in an open ended fashion.

Bringing the resources of the college to the homepage, like the simulation lab, were important because they were differentiators from other nursing programs in the state.

The child pages get right to the point and focus on the content without a lot of extra images.

Information

We ended up re-organizing every page on the site and reduced the total number of pages by ~40%. Luckily we were able to get access to the analytics of the site during the project which helped us decide on the new architecture.

The main menu items were reduced to seven clear items with specific audiences and one level of sub menu items. The site was flattened down to three levels compared to the previous version. Each program now has the same information so a prospective student can compare requirements and outcomes apples to apples.

Looking Forward

(opens new window)

It's still too early to tell if visitors are getting to the destination pages quicker than before but we are keeping an eye on the analytics. We try to do an analytics review one month after the launch of each site to see if we notice anything odd or interesting. So far the visits to the site and average time are up 10 percent and 17 percent respectively year over year. That looks good on paper but doesn't mean visitors are accomplishing their goals. Only time will tell, we will be sure to keep everyone updated.

View the new College of Nursing website at: http://nursing.wayne.edu/ (opens new window)