Effective website design requires input from a variety of sources, but none so vital as that of the site's users themselves. Website analytics, set up and maintained well, are the ultimate user feedback mechanism and will identify the successes and failures of visual design and information architecture. This presentation will demonstrate the design-collect-evaluate-redesign process York University used to re-develop the most fundamental aspects of its Future Student web presence. Through this example, we will see how analytics data chronicled user interactions and how the design was re-worked to respond to them. What can you take away from this presentation? - A successful design-collect-evaluate-redesign process - Better, more in-depth use of analytics - Data-driven design approach

1. BY THE NUMBERS
Using Analytics to Support
Website Design Choices
Nick Valentino
@nickwebguy • nickv@yorku.ca
Wednesday, 31 July, 13

2. 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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3. 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”
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4. About York University
• Decentralized model for many services, including
• communications
• information technology
• web design and development
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5. About York University
• Decentralized model for many services, including
• communications
• information technology
• web design and development
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6. About York University
• Decentralized model for many services, including
• communications
• information technology
• web design and development
3
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7. About York University
• Decentralized model for many services, including
• communications
• information technology
• web design and development
3
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8. 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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9. Story time...
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10. 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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11. 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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12. The previous design
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13. The previous design
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14. The previous design
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15. The previous design
Header 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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16. The previous design
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17. The previous design
No one was clicking on
anything inside this box
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18. Where the clicks are going
Current Students
Programs
MyFile
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19. Where the clicks are going
2,993,963
290,245
77,665
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20. Where the clicks are going
2,993,963
290,245
77,665
16,522
33,432
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21. Where the clicks are going
2,993,963
290,245
77,665
16,522
33,432
24%!
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22. How we knew where the clicks...
• In-Page Analytics
• Where people are
clicking
• Identify most
popular links on
any page
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23. 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, 2012sitors Flow
This report is based on 99.6K visits (4.29% of visits). Learn more
Source / Medium
2.32M 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 / referral
951K
google / organic
571K
search / organic
82.3K
ExactTarget / Email
85.3K
/
942K
(>100 more pages)
819K
/graduate/programs
132K
/programs
135K
/graduate/
191K
/program
103K
/programs
152K
/requiremen...highschool
76K
/graduate/programs
140K
(>100 more pages)
879K
/outbound
155K
/outbound/a...n-­-­student
101K
(>100 more pages)
692K
/
107K
/program
96K
/programs
77K
/requirements
62K
/outbound
74.7K
(>100 more pages)
520K
/program
75.2K
/graduate/programs
57.3K
/
54.4K
/programs
74.4K
/outbound
73.1K
⇩
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24. 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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25. 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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26. 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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27. The new design
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28. The new design
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29. The new design
Image carousel
Upcoming Tours and Events
What’s New
Social Media links
Ask An Expert
Honking big RED button
Steps to Apply
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30. The new design
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31. The new design
Programs List
Search
List Navigation
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32. 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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33. The new design
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34. The new design
Program Description
Cohort Selection Tool
Link to Faculty Page
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35. The new design
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36. The new design
Program specific
requirements
Last year’s cut-offs
Minimum
requirements
Links to other
requirements pages
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37. The new design
All program specific
requirements
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38. 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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39. 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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40. Mobile design
• Adaptive, not responsive
• Focused content
• Carousel
• Programs/Requirements path
• Social media links
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41. Mobile design
• Could not include
• online application
• MyFile application status
• campus tours
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42. 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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43. 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
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44. 34
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45. QUESTIONS?
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46. BY THE NUMBERS
Using Analytics to Support
Website Design Choices
Nick Valentino
@nickwebguy • nickv@yorku.ca
Wednesday, 31 July, 13