You make people happy with your website and gain marketing strength when your website lets visitors quickly find and complete the top tasks that brought them to the site. This presentation reviews the basics of top task research and shows examples of college and university websites in 4 key areas: home pages, student recruitment, advancement & alumni, and academic programs and services.

1. BEST PRACTICES FOR TOP
TASK WEB DESIGN:
HIGHER ED EXAMPLES
©ROBERTE.JOHNSON,PH.D.2016
Bob Johnson, Ph.D.
Academic Impressions: Planning for a Higher Ed
Website Redesign
Cincinnati, OH: February 28 – March 2
Bob Johnson Consulting, LLC 1

2. KEEP. IT. SIMPLE.
What do most people
want from your website?
Fast task completion.
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3. THE GOLDEN RULE…
<5 seconds to connect
as a page opens.
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4. THE TOP TASK WEBSITE
DESIGN GOAL…
Quick identification of the
path to top tasks.
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5. Attention to Jakob Nielsen…
http://www.nngroup.com/articles/university-sites/
Top 10 Design Guidelines… My favorites…
• #5
• “Make it easy to view a list of
majors and programs.”
• #8
• “Follow the user journey:
check the main tasks for
each of your audiences.”
• #9
• “Beware the perils of making
your website ‘cool.’“
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6. TOP TASK RESEARCH
RESULTS
3 to 5 tasks dominate from lists of 60
to 100 possibilities.
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7. Please choose and score the TOP FIVE tasks from the list
below that best describe what is important to you when
choosing to go to university.
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
1 6 11 16 21 26 31 36 41 46 51 56
Vote
Tasks
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8. Top future student tasks…
• “Traditional” undergrad students…
• Academic programs
• Costs & financial aid
• Investment return after graduating.
• “Adult” students add…
• Time to complete a program
• Flexible scheduling
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9. Topics among the bottom 20 tasks…
• Social media connections
• Info about alumni, presidents, and deans
• School news
• Profiles and connections to current
students
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10. Top task ID process…
http://www.digitalgov.gov/2015/02/06/top-task-usability-design-for-your-users/
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11. Guide to the research…
http://www.customercarewords.com/top-tasks-identification-overview/
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12. HOME PAGE EXAMPLES…
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13. Top website design winner in 2013…
London’s Design Museum award… http://bit.ly/HfxFAq
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14. Top tasks link collections…
http://umanitoba.ca/
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15. Finding top tasks via “search”…
http://www.xavier.edu/
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16. Carousel co-existence…
https://www.vu.edu.au/
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17. “Estimate cost and aid”…
http://www.lynn.edu/
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18. University of Ottawa in 2014…
https://www.uottawa.ca/en

19. University of Ottawa in 2016…
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20. STUDENT
RECRUITMENT…
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21. Tasks in the admissions cycle…
http://www.esu.edu/admissions
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22. Rapid cost estimator…
http://www.wellesley.edu/admission/affordable/myintuition
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23. Fast scholarship qualification…
http://scholarships.eku.edu/estimator
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24. Online transfer credit information…
https://www.franklin.edu/transfer-credit-college-course-equivalency-tool
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25. Alumni career info by academic major…
http://www.colgate.edu/distinctly-colgate/success-after-colgate
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26. Brief inquiry capture form…
http://online.gannon.edu/request-more-information
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27. Professional schools keep it simple…
http://bit.ly/1aDruV9
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28. ADVANCEMENT &
ALUMNI…
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29. Easy to scan key campaign numbers…
http://www.giveto.pitt.edu/campaign/data
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30. 27 alumni tasks get center position…
http://alumni.psu.edu/
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31. Alumni home page networking task…
http://apps.carleton.edu/alumni/
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32. Top tasks for alumni accounts…
http://www.alumni.hbs.edu/lefa/
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33. “Browse by topic” for IU news in 2013…
http://newsinfo.iu.edu/
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34. The newsroom site, 2016 version…
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35. ACADEMIC PROGRAMS &
SERVICES…
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36. Top tasks for study abroad…
http://studyabroad.arcadia.edu/
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37. 6 important library tasks…
http://www.stritch.edu/library/
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38. Top tasks for international students…
http://www.uio.no/english/student-life/
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39. Quick facts with unusual clarity…
https://www.transy.edu/about/facts.htm
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40. Important faculty details…
http://www.middlebury.edu/academics/enam/faculty
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41. WRAPPING UP…
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42. Top task steps to remember…
• For any audience, 3 to 5 tasks stand out as most
important.
• People should see top tasks immediately (5 seconds or
less) as a web page opens.
• Priority to task words especially important in a mobile
view.
• For recruitment, ask admissions people what questions
future students most often ask.
• Beware of “cool” features that do not contribute to task
completion.
• Reduce content bloat as much as possible.
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43. THANKS FOR BEING
HERE IN CINCINNATI!
Bob Johnson, Ph.D.
bob@bobjohnsonconsulting.com
www.bobjohnsonconsulting.com
@highedmarketing
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