SIERRA COLLEGE
Sierra College provides affordable higher education in Northern California, driving opportunities in the community and regional workforce.
It was time to redesign and upgrade the Sierra College website with a student-centric design and new content management system.
The information in this case study is my own and does not necessarily reflect the views of Sierra College.
Reaching Prospective Community College Students with a Redesigned Website
THE CHALLENGE
Sierra College wanted to redesign, restructure, and re-platform their main website as part of their strategic plan for Equity and Student Completion. The college wanted to reach prospective students with a welcoming, supportive, intuitive and accessible website.
The main goals of the project included:
Creating a simple, modern, and cohesive website that emphasizes Sierra College’s welcoming and supportive community as well as their commitment to equity
Promoting academic programs within a Guided Pathways framework
Developing a more intuitive experience for users to navigate
Creating a seamless user experience between Sierra Colleges subsites and IT systems
Being fully accessible: 100% responsive, WCAG 2.1 AA/ADA compliant, simplified content that can be translated into multiple languages, and considerate of users with limited tech access
MY ROLE
I was a UX Web Content Consultant throughout the project cycle. I worked with the Sierra College marketing team as well as the iFactory design and development teams to brainstorm ideas, problem solve, and design solutions. Main areas of responsibility included:
UX Design (flows, personas, concept ideation, prototyping, filters)
UX Content (information architecture, content management, content migration, copywriting, SEO, digital assets)
Accessibility and Inclusive Design
Testing and Quality Assurance
DATE
April 2021 – December 2022
RESEARCH & INSIGHTS
Several methods were used to gather data for the new website including interviews, surveys, journey mapping, task analysis, and analytics. I also referenced the Student Equity Plan (2019-2022) and the Students Speak Report (July 2020) to gain a deeper understanding of student experiences at the college. Here are the main insights from the research.
Accessibility - Putting accessibility at the forefront, especially when everything moved online during the pandemic.
Reducing Complexity - Translating difficult concepts (like admissions and financial aid) into easy-to-understand content.
Value & Viability - Understanding changes in student values and attitudes towards higher education.
Awareness of Services and Resources - Connecting students to academic, career, and support specialists.
Sense of Belonging - Finding opportunities to get involved in campus life and build community.
USER PERSONAS
Four main users were identified with key characteristics, contextual background, specific user tasks, and business objectives. The user personas informed how the content was organized and played an essential role in developing the sitemap and wireframes.
Four user personas: Traditional Prospective Student, Nontraditional Prospective Student, High School Counselor, Community Member
GUIDED PATHWAYS
Streamlining the College Student Journey
Guided Pathways is a student success initiative at California Community Colleges aimed to help all students explore, choose, plan, and complete their program. The new website introduces students to the idea of connecting their interests to academic programs with associated career paths.
(top) Guided Pathways user flow
(bottom) Guided Pathways translated to the website
ACADEMIC PROGRAMS
Helping Students Connect Learning to Earning
The Academic Program pages help students better understand how the program prepares them for specific careers. Following the wireframes and functional specs, I mapped out the content on over 55 academic program pages covering 150 degrees and certificates. The data was then imported into the new CMS by development, saving time and resources for manual entry.
Academic Program page wireframe, functional specs, and final screenshot
SUPPORT PROGRAMS
Advancing the Presence of Equity Based Programs on the College Website
The previous website attempted to match students to support programs using identity filters. This introduced friction in the user flow because of too many checkboxes, confusing terminology, and inappropriate matches. In order to provide a more respectful experience, I designed four simplified filters based on program type.
(top) Information Architecture behind Support Program filters
(bottom) Support Program wireframe and final screenshots
I also designed a general template for the 16 support program pages utilizing reusable content blocks. Although there were changes during the design and development process, the template remains useful and the pages continue to evolve as stakeholders update content.
Support Program page template and keyscreen
INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE
The old website was structured around a maze of institutional departments. This was not intuitive for prospective students to navigate.
Content Inventory - Pages were marked as archive, merge, revise, or keep. This ensured that only quality content was migrated over to the new site.
Sitemap - The sitemap defines the underlying structure of the site and how content is grouped together. The main menu was redesigned to focus on the student experience. This included academics, admissions, campus life, student services, athletics, and events. A secondary menu was introduced for specific audiences and administrative offices.
Content Planning - Existing content was mapped onto the new sitemap. This allowed us to identify pages that required new visuals and written content, specifically high-level landing pages. I created a new digital asset library with high-quality images sourced from the photo archives for the team to use during migration. I also wrote content for the homepage, admissions pages, academic pages, and support program pages.
Content Migration, Launch, and Post-Launch Support - I helped execute the migration from the old site to the new site. I also provided additional SEO support by adding meta tags, creating redirects, fixing broken links, and addressing accessibility issues.
RESULTS
Increased the overall website performance by 15% across three major categories: Quality Assurance, SEO, and Accessibility
Established the Guided Pathways framework on the website, which can be further developed to include Program Maps in the future
Advanced the presence of equity based programs on the website while improving user journeys for students to find appropriate Support Programs