Recently we launched a completely revamped Office of International Students and Scholars (OISS) Web site (opens new window). Traditionally the OISS office designed, developed, hosted and wrote their own web site. The last and the largest of the Educational Outreach Web sites to launch with almost 200 pages of need to know information for international students.

What we noticed

We took a look at the site from the ground up. Asked the important questions about who the real audience is and what they are coming to the site to accomplish. A few things we noticed right off the bat, the letter from the director on the homepage had to go, it wasn't engaging and took valuable real estate. The next was the thin header image, the only image on the page that was too small to reinforce the Wayne State brand. And lastly some calls to action, everything on the old site was the same size and prominence, nothing stood out.

What we learned

We sat down with the people who answer the phones and with some actual international students to figure out what really needed to be on the site. We learned that student testimonials are huge in determining which university a student will attend. The three most needed things on the site ended up being financial aid, housing information and forms. Last but not least a large number of current students were visiting the site every day looking for events.

What we did

Taking all of this and a lot of other things into consideration we built the navigation around a goal oriented approach based on what stage the user was in. We then separated the homepage in to some key areas that highlighted the upcoming deadlines, the three main things a prospective student is looking for, highlighted student profiles/testimonials and an area for the upcoming events. During the redesign process we transitioned the OISS office from a standalone calendar to the main university events calendar (opens new window). We also worked with the marketing coordinators to shoot some testimonials in different languages (opens new window). The design of the site is aligned with the other (opens new window) international (opens new window) Web sites. And last but not least we moved their site into the central university CMS and server environment.

The end result

After all of this research, planning and execution the final site is something we can be proud of. The design and information reinforce the goals of the department and university as a whole. It took longer than we expected but in the end was worth the wait.

View the Office of International Students and Scholars Web site at: http://oiss.wayne.edu/ (opens new window)