applying e-commerce strategies and best practices in gem to build your website

admission.umontreal.ca

Applying e-commerce strategies and best practices in GEM to build your website

Presented by:

Marc-Olivier Ouellet, Web Advisor

Université de Montréal

October 22rd, 2014


About Université de Montréal (UdeM)

About our Web project: admission.umontreal.ca

Best practices in GEM and latest trends in e-commerce and social media

How to put everything together

Discussions

Welcome!


Select current trends in e-commerce and identity best practices in GEM that can be transposed to your University website

Learn to use tools and implement features that will help you measure and evaluate your recruitment efforts without the use of expensive and proprietary CRM.

Determine innovative ways to leverage your current data and online content

Learning Objectives


ABOUT US

THE UNIVERSITÉ DE MONTRÉAL AND ITS WEB PROJECT


Université de Montréal at a Glance


+64 500 students in 16 faculties and affiliated schools



2 600 professors-researchers

465 chairs and research units

37 affiliated health institutions

$526M in research revenue


250 undergraduate programs (74%)

350 graduate programs (26%)

16 750 graduate students

The most complete range of LIFE and HEALTH SCIENCES programs in Canada.


Office of Admissions and Recruitment– Recruitment of prospective undergraduate and

graduate students

– Centralized admission • A to Z for undergraduate

• Collecting and preparing applications at the graduate level

– Separate from the Registrar Office

– Separate from the Communication and PR Office

– About 50 employees :• 35 for admission

• 15 for recruitment

Internal Organization


ABOUT OUR WEB PROJECT

Global and internal contexts, objectives and resources


Program is the most important factor for a prospective student when choosing a university*

It is therefore important to keep program information current and attractive.

And distribute as widely as possible:

– online

– mobile

– paper

Key Factors in Decision-making

*EDge Interactive – SchoolFinder Group, « What Students Want », Group Canadian Student Survey 2011

Sites about our academic programs


New system = end of a Web era

Intranet Grand public

PeopleSoft Current websites


Laborious Web Experience

Faculties / Departments SitesAcademic Programs, Courses, Research,

Professors, Student Life, Events, Scholarship, Financing, Awards, Careers

Services / Institution Sites

Social Networks (Facebook, Twitter, …)

IT

SAE

UdeM News

Calendar

Libraries

Peoplesoft

Campuses

Prospective Students SiteAcademic Programs, Admission, Costs of

studies, International Students, Open House, Activities, Publications

Studies SiteStudy at UdeM, Program

Transfer, Student Card UdeM, Student Center, Class Registration, Pay your tuition, Financial

Aid, etc

We had an opportunity:

– To improve the way we present our wide range of programs and courses (undergraduate + graduate)

– To realign our Web offering with the needs and realities of today's students (current + prospective)

– To revise and improve the content of our program catalogue and website pages

– To simplify the way we work internally

An opportunity

Current strengths

E-commercetrends

Internal feedback

Successful change


Time before going in production: 8 months– January to October 2013 (Phase 1)– November to October 2014 (Phase 2)

Core HR dedicated to the project:– 1 full-time computer engineer– 1 full-time recruitment advisor– 1 part-time IT / management student– 1 part-time information analyst (Peoplesoft)– 1 part-time IT consultant– 3 outside firms:

• Web and graphic design (Akufen)• Web development (Libeo)• Web ergonomics (Adviso)

Resources available


How to tackle this massive task?

© John Furness of Simple Square

http://www.simplesquare.com/blog/infographics/a-web-site-designed/


RESEARCH

Assess your Recruitment Funnel

Public• I discover UdeM (notoriety)

Prospect• I am interested in programs at UdeM

Contact• I collect information on programs at UdeM

Candidate

• I apply for admission at UdeM(and possibly at other universities too)

Admitted

• I’m admitted at the UdeM (and possibly at other universities too)

Enrolled• I enroll at UdeM

Co

nve

rsio

ns

Google Analytics

???

ERP / Admission system




Consumer habits in terms of information have evolved

Learn about students’ habits on the Web

– Nielsen Norman Group publication is a great start : “College Students on the Web”, 2nd Edition

Consumer habits have changed


Visual Design– Clean, simplistic design, ample white space, with the user

experience in mind at all times.– Less stock photos: photos are a trust indicator for users– Use relatively large font sizes– Build in a Responsive way: sites that load nicely on tablets

and mobile devices

Writing for the Web– Allow users to scan your content quickly for the piece of

information they need without reading all your content.– Tone down the marketing hype– Minimize redundancy

Source: Nielsen Norman Group, “College Students on the Web”, 2nd Edition

Identity Best Practices in Web Usability


Navigation and Interaction Design– Choose navigation schemes that are familiar

– Avoid cute and fancy navigation, fancy features just for the sake of it

– Provide direct access to high priority content

– Feature URLs that are readable and memorable

– Organize content by meaningful categories such information type, user task, and questions.

Search and Filters– Feature a simple search box at the top of every page

– Offer simple ways to narrow options and search results

Identity Best Practices in Web Usability

Features on E-commerce Sites

Breadcumbs Categorygrouping


Big Menus


Technique to explore a collection of information by applying multiple filters

Start large and narrow

Popular technique seen in commercial online retailers for online retail catalogues, reflecting nature of product data:

– Type, Brand, Price, Color, Size, etc

– Ex: MEC online store

Can this be applied for GEM? Of course!

About Faceted Search

http://www.mec.ca/shop/climbing-mens-tops/50001+50089+50122/


Promo area

Product filtering

Product comparaison


Search bar

Wish list

Wish list

Sharebuttons

Call-to-actions


Product suggestions

Product Summary


DESIGNING OUR WEBSITE



How to design our new website?

Dig

Prototype

Consult

Prioritize

Document



What data do you have? What data is missing?

Look for it in:

– Current websites, HTML pages, CMS, …

– PeopleSoft: reports, tables, extractions, …

– Legacy system, databases, web services, …

– Publications: PDF, word documents, InDesign, …

Make an inventory of all your data

– This will help to structure and build your database

– Excel spreadsheet will do

Digging


Build a live prototype of your website to help your users see what the site is going to look like

– mockups / wireframes ++

A prototype will force people to focus on ergonomics, features and prioritization of your content

Make many versions and keep an history

Use software like Axure, no coding required!

– http://www.axure.com/

Prototyping

http://www.axure.com/

Prototyping with Axure


It’s not about you: It’s about your audience.

Ask your target audience what they think and what they want

We organized 5 focus-groups sessions :– Students from all levels and from various backgrounds

– Personnel working directly with students• Agents on the phone / at the counter

• Secretaries in the departments

• Admission evaluators

• Communication advisors

– High-school counsellors

Consulting


What :– To dream the best, most perfect website

– To criticize our current website

– To criticize your prototype

Why :– Help to prioritize information

– Help to get feedback and test your ideas

– Help to improve your prototype

– Help to give you leverage when bringing changes to your organization• “I wasn’t me, people asked for it”

Consulting – cont’


Faceted search > program filtering

Big menus with clear categories

Detailed program page with a tab layout

Right columns for call-to-actions & share buttons

Related programs

Inquiry form

Program comparison

Registration with social login

Responsive Design

Some of our picks


Students want the info all at one place– Centralized all information on 1 page

– Group the info by tab

Showcase your program– What do your users want to know? Place it first and

foremost

– What are your key selling points? Show them

Position your calls-to-action clearly– Submit your Application

– Ask a Question

– Share / Social button / Link

Detailed program page

Our prototype – Program detailed page

Our prototype – Search result page


Filters:

– Cycle

– Domains

– Level of studies

– Period

– Semester

– Study Plan

– Features

– GPA

– …

Faceted search for your catalogue


Position filters by order of importance for your users

Ask for friendly URL for your search results

Add links to pre-determined search results

Ask for the ability to share your search results

Add ability to download in Excel your results– Useful for your faculty/department

Use “Apache Solr”, an open-source software that can be integrated to any website to make faceted search happens– Based on the quality, reliability and completeness of

your catalogue database

Tips for faceted search


Don’t let your user stop at one program

Help them explore more with related programs or program suggestions

You don’t need a complicated algorithm, find out what other programs your prospective students applied into

– Help to avoid politics!

Related Programs

Allow users to view your program in a table form

Program Comparison

Built our website in a responsive manner :

– Desktop version (980 px or larger)

– Tablet version (320 px to 980 px)

– Mobile version (less then 320 px)

Fluid design (%)

Same URL, same content

Responsive Design


Have a inquiry form with multiple fields to fill out

Store data in a database!– Even if you don’t have a CRM or work with emails only

Better ask for more and have the fields optional– Basic info (name, email, birthday, …)

– Topic / subject

– Program

– Country of citizenship

– Current education institution

– Field of interest

– Desired course of studies

– Permission to receive emails from the university

Inquiry form


If you want to create a personalized Web experience for your users, you will need them to register to your site

Before to do so, think about the features that will want them to create an account on your site

– To register to your events?

– To access protected documents?

– To submit an inquiry?

– To submit an application? (for integrated systems)

– To generate personalized content?

Personalized experience

Let your users to connect with their social identity

Registration system: login / connect


Advantages:

– Reduces barriers to register and login to your site

– Permission-based access to rich user data

– Create a personalized user experience

Disadvantages:

– Maintenance: ways to connect to social networks change frequently

Solutions

– Limit number of social networks

– Use a third-party social login service, like Gigya

Social login – Cont’


At UdeM, we chose to limit social login to Facebook, LinkedIn and Google

– Our users are allowed to login with their UdeM account or create a local account on our site

– Twitter does not share the user email address

Data that we will collect for now:

– Email, Name, Gender, Language, Birthday, Profile image, Location, Hometown, Age

Link your inquiry with your user registration/login system

Social login – Cont’

Tools to measure

Contact database

Inquiry form

Event registration

forms

Stay in touch form

Login / Registration

ERP

Applications

Link your data

Recruitment Funnel

Public• I discover UdeM (notoriety)

Prospect• I am interested in programs at UdeM

Contact• I collect information on programs at UdeM

Candidate

• I apply for admission at UdeM(and possibly at other universities too)

Admitted

• I’m admitted at the UdeM (and possibly at other universities too)

Enrolled• I enroll at UdeM

Co

nve

rsio

ns

Google Analytics

New Contact database





RETURN ON OUR EFFORTS

-

5000 000

10000 000

15000 000

20000 000

25000 000

Oct 2012 to Oct 2013 Oct 2013 to Oct 2014

Pages viewed

Sharp increase in our traffic in the last year

+ 64%


Increase of 2:11 duration of visit (average 7:36)

Centralizing data about our programs / courses had a direct positive impact of other of our sections

Inquiries / users :

– 30 000 inquiries in 12 months

– 2 400 new users in only 1 month

– 40% users want to hear from us

• Checked “yes” when asked if they want to hear from us

25% of our visitors are from a mobile/tablet device

Other indicators


Distribution of pageviews per section

37%

27%

9%

8%

7%

4%

2%1%

1% 1%

1%

1%1%

0%

Fiches programmes

Admission

Cours

Outil de recherche des programmes

Page d'accueil

English

Test Cursus

Vous êtes

Études au 1er cycle

Nous joindre

Info-conseils

Événements

Études aux cycles supérieurs

Brasil

54% of traffic: programs and

courses + search page


Data about our users

– We can export this data in Excel and filter by any fields

– We can use this data to feed our mailing system

– We can combine it with the application data

Data about our programs / courses

– We can track what is popular, what is not

– We can generate other content based on this data

• Printed catalogue

• Printed brochures

• Personalized catalogue, generated on demand

Using this data


CONCLUSION


Developed a site (admission.umontreal.ca) that attracts students and provides the information they need

Built a rich database about our programs / courses

Collect data about our prospective students

Preparing for the future

Rich content

User info

Make better decisions


Any question?

Contact me :

– Marc-Olivier Ouellet

– [email protected]

– twitter.com/marcolivier_ca

– www.linkedin.com/in/mouellet

– admission.umontreal.ca

Discussions

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.linkedin.com/in/mouellet

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