by the numbers: using analytics to support web design choices

BY THE NUMBERSUsing Analytics to Support Website Design Choices

Nick Valentino@nickwebguy • nickv@yorku.ca

Wednesday, 31 July, 13

About York University• Located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada• 3rd largest university, 2nd largest campus in Canada• 56,000+ students (~6,000 post-graduate)• 7,000+ employees

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Wednesday, 31 July, 13

About York University• Located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada• 3rd largest university, 2nd largest campus in Canada• 56,000+ students (~6,000 post-graduate)• 7,000+ employees

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• Our own “common”

Wednesday, 31 July, 13

About York University• Decentralized model for many services, including• communications• information technology• web design and development

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Wednesday, 31 July, 13

About York University• Decentralized model for many services, including• communications• information technology• web design and development

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Wednesday, 31 July, 13

About York University• Decentralized model for many services, including• communications• information technology• web design and development

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Wednesday, 31 July, 13

About York University• Decentralized model for many services, including• communications• information technology• web design and development

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Wednesday, 31 July, 13

About York University• Division of Students• all non-academic, student facing departments• Recruitment, Registrar, Student Services, Sport Services, etc.

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• Our communications team• divided into content and

technology teams• work closely together to develop

online and offline solutions• centerpiece is Future Students

website

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Story time...

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Wednesday, 31 July, 13

Some basic stats• All statistics are drawn from the period Sept 1, 2011 to

June 30, 2012

• Unique visitors: 1,230,139• Unique pageviews: 9,262,500• Pages/Visit: 5.61• Avg. Visit Duration: 4:41• Bounce rate: 28.48%• % New Visits: 50.60%

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Challenges• Basic design, including “global nav”

• Web apps under other jurisdictions• online application• application for checking application status (MyFile)

• Site built on “marginally supported” (by central IT) framework

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The previous design

Wednesday, 31 July, 13

The previous design

Wednesday, 31 July, 13

The previous design

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The previous designHeader mandated by Marketing

Image carousel for high-profile messages

Arguably, most important item on page

Social media links

Ask an Expert

Link to sign up for a tour

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The previous design

Wednesday, 31 July, 13

The previous design

No one was clicking on anything inside this box

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Where the clicks are going

Current Students

Programs

MyFile

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Where the clicks are going

2,993,963

290,245

77,665

Wednesday, 31 July, 13

Where the clicks are going

2,993,963

290,245

77,665

16,522

33,432

Wednesday, 31 July, 13

Where the clicks are going

2,993,963

290,245

77,665

16,522

33,432

24%!

Wednesday, 31 July, 13

How we knew where the clicks...• In-Page Analytics

• Where people are clicking

• Identify most popular links on any page

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Wednesday, 31 July, 13

How we knew where the clicks...• Visitor flow• Confirms what other analytics tell us about users’ paths through the

site

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©  2013  Google

http://futurestudents.yorku.ca  -­  http://futurestudents.yorku.ca

Future  Students  [DEFAULT]

Go  to  this  report

Sep  1,  2011 -­ Jun  30,  2012Visitors  Flow

This  report  is  based  on  99.6K  visits  (4.29%  of  visits).  Learn  more

Source  /  Medium2.32M  Visits  818K  Drop  Offs 1.5M  Visits  395K  Drop  Offs 1.11M  Visits  254K  Drop  Offs 854K  Visits  165K  Drop  Offs

Starting  pages 1st  Interaction 2nd  Interaction 3rd  Interaction

(direct)  /  (none)334K

...298K

yorku.ca  /  referral951K

google  /  organic571K

search  /  organic82.3K

ExactTarget  /  Email85.3K

/942K

(>100  more  pages)819K

/graduate/programs132K

/programs135K

/graduate/191K

/program103K

/programs152K

/requiremen...highschool76K

/graduate/programs140K

(>100  more  pages)879K

/outbound155K

/outbound/a...n-­-­student101K

(>100  more  pages)692K

/107K

/program96K

/programs77K

/requirements62K

/outbound74.7K

(>100  more  pages)520K

/program75.2K

/graduate/programs57.3K

/54.4K

/programs74.4K

/outbound73.1K

⇩

Wednesday, 31 July, 13

How we knew where the clicks...• Top pages

• consistently shows programs as the top destination after home page

• graduate programs pageviews exceed even the graduate home page

• requirements pages account for next most numerous pageviews

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Wednesday, 31 July, 13

How we knew where the clicks...• Landing Pages

• shows that the vast majority of visits begin at the home page

• Programs also a frequent landing page

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Wednesday, 31 July, 13

How we knew where the clicks...• Exit pages• Three of the most visited requirements pages are among the most

frequent exit pages.

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Wednesday, 31 July, 13

The new design

Wednesday, 31 July, 13

The new design

Wednesday, 31 July, 13

The new designImage carousel

Upcoming Tours and EventsWhat’s New

Social Media linksAsk An Expert

Honking big RED button

Steps to Apply

Wednesday, 31 July, 13

The new design

Wednesday, 31 July, 13

The new design

Programs List

Search

List Navigation

Wednesday, 31 July, 13

The model• Graduate program pages have

always included admission requirements.

• Also include deadline dates

• Admissions requirements are much less complicated for grad programs

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Wednesday, 31 July, 13

The new design

Wednesday, 31 July, 13

The new design

Program Description

Cohort Selection Tool

Link to Faculty Page

Wednesday, 31 July, 13

The new design

Wednesday, 31 July, 13

The new design

Program specific requirements

Last year’s cut-offs

Minimum requirements

Links to other requirements pages

Wednesday, 31 July, 13

The new design

All program specific requirements

Wednesday, 31 July, 13

Results• Pageviews for key areas actually down ~10%• Streamlined the path through key areas

• Increased time spent on programs and requirements pages by 10-25%

• Increased unique visitors to application by 27%

• User testing shows more refinements to be made

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Wednesday, 31 July, 13

Mobile challenges• Again, only able to affect the Future Students website

• No mobile versions of application or MyFile (application status)

• As with desktop version, central marketing impose a design template

• 97% of all traffic on desktops• tablet:mobile traffic almost 2:1

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Wednesday, 31 July, 13

Mobile design• Adaptive, not responsive

• Focused content• Carousel• Programs/Requirements path• Social media links

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Wednesday, 31 July, 13

Mobile design• Could not include• online application• MyFile application status• campus tours

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Wednesday, 31 July, 13

Mobile results• Mobile traffic increased 775%• Not sure how much that has to do with us

• Mobile traffic to programs up• from 2,700 pageviews to 64,000

• Mobile traffic to requirements up, like, 1,000,000%

• Effectively dead-ended the mobile path due to limitations

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Wednesday, 31 July, 13

Next Steps• Continued analysis

• Refinement: changes to homepage, etc.• Year-over-year analysis to accompany monthly reports• Use of other home page links as starting points• Better integration of Campus Tours, integration of Student Blogs

• More user testing

• More analysis and refinement

Wednesday, 31 July, 13

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Wednesday, 31 July, 13

QUESTIONS?

Wednesday, 31 July, 13

BY THE NUMBERSUsing Analytics to Support Website Design Choices

Nick Valentino@nickwebguy • nickv@yorku.ca

Wednesday, 31 July, 13