case studies: The Catholic University of America
Awards
Web Marketing Association's University Standard of Excellence of 2009.
"The new Catholic University website represents a significant and exciting advance in the way that the university communicates and markets itself to external audiences."
Very Rev. David M. O'Connell, Catholic University President
Client
The Catholic University of America (CUA) is the national university of the Catholic Church in the United States. Located in Washington, D.C., CUA is home to 12 schools, 21 research facilities, and roughly 7,000 graduate and undergraduate students.
Challenge
CUA recognized that in the last several years, Web 2.0 has dramatically changed recruiting and retention of college students. The university approached NavigationArts for help in developing an over-arching strategy to improve marketing, increase demand generation, and better serve current CUA students and staff.
Solution
NavigationArts began CUA's strategic redesign by conducting user research with current and prospective students. The results revealed a major demand from both audiences: content personalization tailored to their respective status in the educational process, and better exposure about the university, its history, culture, and offerings.
NavigationArts approached this redesign in two phases. The first-tier design addressed the university homepage, as well as the development of top-level pages that provide access to the key functional and organizational areas of the site. The second-tier design effort –which launched in fall 2009-- created a set of flexible templates that can be used by schools, departments and offices at the university for their homepages and content pages.
Project Results Included:
- Phased approach that allowed the CUA project team to make high-impact changes to the homepage and top-level content pages quickly
- Navigation scheme improved the site's usability and drives users to the content they're seeking
- User interface design creates an engaging and appealing user experience that reflects Catholic University's identity as a comprehensive institution of higher learning with a rich research tradition
- System of flexible design templates projects a cohesive brand signal across the university, while still allowing each school to have their own content priorities and special features
- Template Development