BY THE NUMBERSUsing Analytics to Support Website Design Choices
Nick Valentino@nickwebguy • [email protected]
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
2
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
2
• Our own “common”
Wednesday, 31 July, 13
About York University• Decentralized model for many services, including• communications• information technology• web design and development
3
Wednesday, 31 July, 13
About York University• Decentralized model for many services, including• communications• information technology• web design and development
3
Wednesday, 31 July, 13
About York University• Decentralized model for many services, including• communications• information technology• web design and development
3
Wednesday, 31 July, 13
About York University• Decentralized model for many services, including• communications• information technology• web design and development
3
Wednesday, 31 July, 13
About York University• Division of Students• all non-academic, student facing departments• Recruitment, Registrar, Student Services, Sport Services, etc.
4
• Our communications team• divided into content and
technology teams• work closely together to develop
online and offline solutions• centerpiece is Future Students
website
Wednesday, 31 July, 13
Story time...
5
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%
Wednesday, 31 July, 13
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
7
Wednesday, 31 July, 13
The previous design
Wednesday, 31 July, 13
The previous design
Wednesday, 31 July, 13
The previous design
Wednesday, 31 July, 13
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
Wednesday, 31 July, 13
The previous design
Wednesday, 31 July, 13
The previous design
No one was clicking on anything inside this box
Wednesday, 31 July, 13
Where the clicks are going
Current Students
Programs
MyFile
Wednesday, 31 July, 13
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
15
Wednesday, 31 July, 13
How we knew where the clicks...• Visitor flow• Confirms what other analytics tell us about users’ paths through the
site
16
© 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
17
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
18
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.
19
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
24
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
28
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
29
Wednesday, 31 July, 13
Mobile design• Adaptive, not responsive
• Focused content• Carousel• Programs/Requirements path• Social media links
30
Wednesday, 31 July, 13
Mobile design• Could not include• online application• MyFile application status• campus tours
31
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
32
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
34
Wednesday, 31 July, 13
QUESTIONS?
Wednesday, 31 July, 13
BY THE NUMBERSUsing Analytics to Support Website Design Choices
Nick Valentino@nickwebguy • [email protected]
Wednesday, 31 July, 13