Web Design
Among college students, incidents of mental health challenges continue to rise. The university’s counseling department serves the entire Athens community of students and often has requests that exceed their capacity to serve through individual counseling. As a result, they offer a broad variety of services including workshops, group therapy, and mental health apps. I recognized that the counseling department continued to have a significant barrier preventing clear communication and service to students — its website. The site had poorly planned navigation, complex content that was difficult for users to review, and lacked clarity in its priority audience. I commissioned a user evaluation from the university’s central web team, the results of which guided a redesign for the department’s primary digital touch point with the student audience.
Desktop and mobile display of new counseling home page
New counseling home page, topic preview element featuring counseling locations on campus
Services web page, utilized icon links to feature various mental health services
Database of mental health resources
Strategy
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User Evaluation
Current students were identified as the primary audience for the counseling website. In developing the evaluation three learning objectives were identified: 1) Can the primary user navigate through the site structure?; 2) Does the primary user understand the information provided?; 3) How can this site better serve the primary user?
The evaluation consisted of two tests, as well as gathering data from Google Analytics. The first test, a series of open-ended questions and tasks, was administered to 15 Ohio University students with a stated interest in mental health, half of whom had utilized campus counseling in the past. The card sort was completed by 49 current students. It was an open card sort in which users created and named their own categories sorting individual topics into each. For the review of Google Analytics, the user testing team identified the top 20 most visited pages as well as engagement with the content on those pages.
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Web Strategy
After reviewing participant responses, the evaluators developed a report with recommendations. These recommendations were used in the development of a new web and content strategy.
The top recommendations included, 1) Streamline the structure of the site and position it for a student audience, particularly by overhauling the navigation menu; 2) For the Resources section, break the resources into four distinct pages that list thematic resources; 3) Make an appointment link on the home page and dedicate a whole page to how to schedule an appointment; 4) Revise home page icon tiles to cater to a student audience.
In addition to these recommendations, our team recognized an opportunity to redesign the entire site from text heavy pages to modular web pages with design elements and information hierarchy that would help audiences to easily sort through and identify the information they need.
Creative
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Photo Style
Out of respect for client confidentiality the counseling department does not have photos of actual students engaged in their services. However, the new site’s visuals needed a human touch and this was achieved through use of stock imagery.
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Modular Pages
The previous site suffered from text heavy web pages that were difficult to easy navigate. Most of those pages were built as basic, text-only pages. With the new site, modular pages were built to allow for more visual contrast and variation in laying out content.
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Information Hierarchy
This project included restructuring and rewriting the original content to be more accessible. Knowing that users typically scan web pages for the information relevant to them, we made greater use of dynamic tools such as headings, collapsible sections, and topic previews.
Deployment
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Launch
The launch of the new site is anticipated for January 19, 2022. Impact of the changes will be tracked through Google Analytics.
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Newsletter
The launch of the new site will be supported with a communication campaign through the weekly student newsletter Keeping Bobcats Informed. Presented through a narrative lens, the newsletter will feature some of the more useful aspects of the new site.
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Social Media
In addition to features in the newsletter, the campaign will include social media support as a way to demonstrate the usefulness of the primary site sections — services and resources.
Role Call
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User evaluation and recommendations by Kailee Slusser. Development of site hierarchy and navigation by Erika Clusman and Mitzi Trentacoste. Content strategy, editing, graphics and page layout by Erika Clusman.
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Ohio University, Division of Student Affairs, Counseling and Psychological Services