UX research for the online experience during the study choice process

But what makes a prospective student click on 'apply' immediately when visiting a program page, or quickly leave? To find out, various colleges and universities asked us to investigate how prospective students rate their pages. We looked at content, layout, calls to action, and how these compare to those of other schools. Our research immediately established a benchmark, allowing the participating educational institutions to be compared with each other.

Our approach

For this study, we conducted a User Experience (UX) survey. The target group consisted of high school students in grades 10, 11, and 12 who want to pursue higher professional education or university education.

The respondents participated in an online survey. The survey consisted of completing an online questionnaire of approximately 25 questions and performing five tasks in a user experience tool. This combined quantitative and qualitative research. This tool measured behavior on the websites of colleges and universities. It looked at both the subjective experience of the website user and objective UX data. In addition to quantitative insights, qualitative feedback was also collected from the respondents. In this feedback, they were able to share their suggestions and areas for improvement.

"The research ties in nicely with our ambition to take a much more data-driven approach to improving our website. Knowing how other universities' websites perform in comparison to our own is, of course, vital to strengthening our competitive position. This is especially true at a time when virtually every university is struggling with declining student numbers." -Marijn Willemse, Project Manager for the renewal of hva.nl

Results

The study provided insight into the user-friendliness of websites of colleges and universities. Based on this, advice was given on what colleges and universities can focus on to optimize the online journey. Among other things, this research provided insight into where users clicked and where they did not (heat maps), the percentage of participants who managed to find the right place on the website (task completion rate), and the percentage who got lost (lostness). It also provided insight into the path that prospective students take to arrive at a particular page (clickstream analysis), how long it took them to find a particular place (time spent), and how many clicks it took them to arrive at the right page (number of clicks).

Each educational institution receives specific feedback, but also receives results from the benchmark. This allows schools to put their results into perspective and learn from broader trends and insights.

Specialists who worked on this

We are an independent research agency specializing in providing insights based on market research. This project was made possible by a team of skilled experts with extensive knowledge and experience in the field of market research. If you have any questions about this research or are interested in how we can help with a similar project, please do not hesitate to contact us. We are happy to assist you!