Columbus State Community College
Columbus State is a large school (approximately 30,000 credit-earning students and 15,000 non-credit) that was struggling to communicate its breadth of offerings to a huge range of students.
The project included an extensive discovery phase to determine the needs and challenges Columbus State faced. This was followed by information architecture and content strategy work, culminating in the design and front-end development of the new site.
Responsibilities
Columbus State Homepage
Columbus State "Pathways" storytelling page
Community Section Landing Page
Programs & Courses Page
"Big Pages" focus on topics, explaining to varied audiences the various CS programs in that area.
CSTV Video Microsite
Mobile Homepage
Mobile Menu and Article pages
Detailed Site Map
Before/Afters are usually not very meaningful. For CS, we really were talking much more than evolution.
Design Challenge
2-Year Colleges Face Unique Challenges
People attend Columbus State for a wide range of reasons. Some students attend for two years to earn credit before transferring to a 4-year school. Others are seeking training to get themselves started in a career after two years. Others are looking for job training, career advancement, ongoing learning, recreational learning and supplemental courses to take while attending another school (a frequent scenario for a college so close to Ohio State). In order to and provide reassurance there is a place for everyone, a storytelling channel was developed and featured on the homepage and throughout the site as a way to explain these "Pathways".
Campus Life
Students who attend Columbus State are able to have a full college experience, but often they are not fully aware of the opportunities around them. The new site was configured in a way that elevated the activities and services that are available and presented Columbus State as the community it is.
All Student Focus
One of the big issues that was impairing the user experience was the way that content and user flows reflected the organizational structure of the school and not the way students understood things. The new information architecture brought previously buried content higher up to the surface and considered the perspective of students from across the educational goal perspective.