3. Take a look at St. Clair Colleges website. In relation to visuals, what would you propose to St. Clair College to improve/enhance this new website to effectively market to potential incoming local domestic students.
Please provide three (3) recommendations and justify your answer with detailed reasoning. (9 Marks)
- Clean up the visual appeal of the home page & add local success stories and testimonials
The St. Clair landing page is overwhelming and cluttered with links, outdated images that don’t represent the current college and sections at first glance. People do not have direction on what is important to click to get where they need to go, which makes navigation difficult. When things are hard to find, it quickly turns people away, which may deter prospective students from exploring further. Assuming domestic students looking into St.Clair are recent high school graduates, we should try to tailor the homepage to a younger demographic.
Making it easier to navigate with more plain language and an active voice would make the homepage much more inviting for the younger demographic. Making the home page more navigation friendly will encourage this demographic to explore the website, which will engage them with the school and look deeper into academic courses. When we focus on essential information that domestic prospective students seek, like parking, programs, campus life, and admission procedures, we will be more likely to find success with incoming domestic applications.
Speaking directly to the audience is an effective strategy when writing content on the web, and this is what these domestic students are accustomed to. Today people are convinced by reviews and testimonials of real people more than website copy telling them what is good about the service We would want to make the landing page aesthetically pleasing by adding high-quality videos and imagery that will guide them to things they are most interested in, like sports, clubs and facilities that would be beneficial to them. Videos help us create an authentic and relatable emotional trigger for the intended audience we are trying to attract. Seeing real students talk about their experience and success stories fosters a connection that body text cannot achieve. When trying to create a sense of belonging, visually connecting these students is very important. We could use video to feature local students and their personal experience with campus culture, professors, to make the college feel more community-driven and approachable than the current site. Incorporating domestic student success stories will increase enrolment interest in the college by making the content more sharable, which will rank better and be more engaging for this target audience. This content will make for strong localized SEO opportunities making it easier for us to target these people and will improve overall user experience.
Having an outdated site will send the message to the audience that St. Clair is outdated which will make them less confident in their choice to get an education here. When the site is easily navigable and written for them, it will evoke a feeling of confidence and belonging. Having a more straightforward, clean layout will make the school more appealing and desirable. No one wants to go to a school that seems confusing and unorganized at first glance. These young people want to be guided to where they want to be and not have to think too hard about what they need to click on to get to what may interest them. By providing this content it will allow us to show them exactly what they want. Visuals are an important aspect for getting messages across on what will be of interest and what will inspire them to want to go here. Making the site more aesthetically pleasing to the eye with white space and images will encourage them to explore more options like programs and extracurricular activities.
- 360 virtual tour of campus and facilities
Campus life plays an important role in the decision-making process when choosing where they want to attend. People want to know what their day-to-day experience would be like, so having a virtual tour of the campus would be a visually exciting experience. Along with a virtual tour, we can try to incorporate real student voices and virtual interactions to create a welcoming, high-tech experience. For example have someone go up to an athlete at the gym or a regular student and get them to speak on what they enjoy about the facility. This would affectively engage the readers with a digitally tangible experience that will get them excited and imagine themselves walking through the halls and using the facilities.
This will engage the prospective students past the academic experience and encourage them to pick St.Clair and think of all the other benefits they will receive by staying in their home city. It will also create a sense of emotional connection that they belong once they picture themselves as an interactive part of the school. Visuals have the capability of creating these strong emotional connections because of how we process images and our feelings. It provides them something to relate to, which will make them remember the tour as if they were in that situation. This makes the campus feel more familiar and inviting. This visual experience will highlight social aspects and increase engagement and exploration from the domestic students. When people have a positive experience exploring the site, this may encourage their application process more quickly and give them less to think about when evaluating options.
Along with the virtual tour, I think it would be beneficial to include high-quality pictures of the campus and all of the new facilities, clubs, professors, benefits, and anything that is of money-saving value that the school offers will make this appealing. Students enjoy feeling like they are getting an education somewhere that puts money back into the school and the students. St.Clair has put a lot of money into the new facilities and could do a better job at highlighting this very important quality on their website. Making students feel like they will be able to go to school in a modern campus may even make them want to choose the college over the university, which is much more outdated. Highlighting the sports center, the E-sports area, football fields, pools, gyms and more will give St. Clair a competitive edge that is very appealing to a younger audience.
Having high-quality images and videos of these facilities will evoke a sense of value in the reader. When we see high-quality images of cutting-edge facilities and compare them to other institutions makes them feel like they will be provided with the most up-to-date and advanced education possible. Especially in 2025 when technology is so important to adaptability. Students want to be a part of a campus that is equipped with the best academic experience to succeed. This imagery will also build trust in what aspect among choosing St.Clair College. This will set a certain expectation of what to expect when they visit, which is important when deciding where to apply. These amenities show that St.Clair cares about evolution and investing in the future success of their students.
- Incorporate more infographic course overviews and stats.
St.Clair has recently removed several programs, and with this change in place, now would be a good time to update the website’s course content and make the course overviews more modern and visually appealing. Young domestic students might get overwhelmed or uncertain about the courses available due to the length of the body text explaining each course. To make learning about courses more engaging and appealing, we could change the course details to a more concise, engaging and visually interesting format. This would increase interest in remaining programs and also make career paths easier for the prospective students to understand. I strongly believe this would be very beneficial for recent graduates to be able to visually learn and connect with the programs to get a better understanding of what their academic experience will be like, as well as gain experience in the career.
Uncertainty of what you are signing up for, in my opinion, would be the biggest pain point in my application process. When researching so many programs and schools it is hard to look past hours of reading and find what truly resonates with the career you would like to be in. St.Clair does have some testimonials for programs, but they do seem kind of poor quality, not that engaging, and lack a good, authentic understanding of what the classes, as well as career would be like. In 2025, people want visually engaging and authentic information details, which the school seems to lack.
I would suggest implementing the courses with visually appealing pictures and icons to scroll through. Along with exciting imagery, they should incorporate all the important facts someone unsure about the career would be interested in knowing. For example, we would have the photo that represents the field, along with the course name and duration, what you will receive upon completion, if that be a certificate, advanced diploma, diploma, etc. When clicking into the course information, the prospective student will learn about job rates and salaries and industry connections received through the school. We would use infographics to show the potential career outcomes and include a financial breakdown, also stating financial opportunities like scholarships, job placements, and grants. We could also incorporate a flow chart stating milestones needed for completion. This idea creates an engaging and visually appealing way to get important information to the viewer. This strategy is more likely to get them thinking about applying faster than long text course explanations. The visual aids will help create an idea of what the industry is like after graduation and what to expect from the whole journey.
This strategy is highly likely to prove successful on this target audience of domestic students because they process and engage with visual information much quicker and will take interest much more interest when visuals and infographics are used to paint a picture or tell a story about the programs. Getting students invested in the programs is most important because they need to envision themselves with this career in their future. Long text format can be super unengaging and overwhelming. Visuals will get them excited about their future in college and as post-graduates from the program. By reducing the cognitive effort to learn about programs and being able to take less time to scan through options, they will be more likely to look into the application process more quickly. The shorter the information, the more likely the target audience will stay engaged and want to learn about these programs. Visual infographics will be able to tell a story about the program much better than reading long body copy. The more clickable and interactive we make the course information section, the more applications from young generations will arise because we are creating a space for them to be more emotionally invested and connected to the school and a future career.
A modern and well-balanced design will be an effective format that will create more interest and trust. It is easier for the viewer to read and comprehend, which is essential for the viewer to take action. When it is easy to consume, this generation will recognize and appreciate it. This will enhance emotional retention among the readers and tell a clearer story outline of what to expect. It will speed up decision making, emotional connection with all prospective students, which will increase domestic applications.
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