Southern Utah: rapid program scanning from degrees to continuing education
Higher education program offerings continue to evolve. That’s due in no small part to increased interest in certificate programs to enhance employment opportunities and career advancement and continue interest in online program delivery.
Not many schools can match the ease of learning what programs are available in what format as Southern Utah University. Most visitors will skip the opening text (do we care about how many programs are offered if you don’t have mine?) and go directly to the options to “Filter by interest.”
Or, on a large screen computer, immediately start checking the alpha list of programs offered in search of what interests them. Alpha lists really are the best way to do this, sparing potential students the task of finding where in different academic divisions a particular program is binned.
If you think your program list is too long for easy alpha scrolling just give visitors the option at the top of the list to go directly to a particular letter grouping. SUU doesn’t have so many programs that there’s a need for that.
On a large screen computer people will see immediately the degree level of a program, whether or not there is a certification program available, and whether the program is only available on campus or also it available online.
A marketing suggestion…
On mobile, the immediate view is limited to program and delivery option. A marketing recommendation: change “Filter by Options” to “Filter by Degrees & Certificates.” That gives more immediate prominence to the “certificate” programs available.
An inquiry form note…
At the end of the page there’s link to “Request information.” The form is pretty short but includes one curiosity item: a mandatory date of birth request. A reasonable question to ask: how does knowing DOB change the information received in return? If it does not, why are you requiring me to answer such a personal question?
Speed on mobile… 1.9 seconds to first view, 10.3 seconds to full interactivity
Google PageSpeed Insights measures the time to first view on a mobile phone at 1.9 seconds… faster than most. Time to full interactivity was lower than ideal at 10.3 seconds.
The main change to make mobile speed faster: “Reduce unused javascript.”
Website Carbon Calculator… “Hurrah!”
Thanks to Gerry McGovern and his efforts to reduce “world wide waste” for the referral.
“This web page is cleaner than 53% of web pages tested.”
See how your website helps or hurts the climate. Test your website pages at “Website Carbon Calculator.”
Follow the Link of the Week…
See how a university makes it easy for potential students to see academic program and delivery options when you visit Southern Utah University’s “Choose Your Interests” page.
Recommend a future Link of the Week
Always eager to get recommendations of websites that dare to be different… or just do something ordinary in a special way. Write a comment with link here or send me the link at bob@bobjohnsonconsulting.com.
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