Introduction
While consulting with Conversion Sciences, I worked with Colorado State University Online. We worked on multiple pages but here I will focus primarily on the optimization of the conversion rate on the Course Landing Pages (LPs).
The Challenge
There were multiple ideas that we hypothesized to address, and the user data was telling us that there was an issue with the conversion rates to get visitors to request more information. Below are some initial screenshots of the desktop and mobile sites for CSU Online and one of many competitive analyses for ASU Online.
Before Colorado State University Online Desktop PDP
Before Colorado State University Online Mobile PDP
Competitive Analysis ASU
Competitive Analysis ASU
Based on the initial LPs, discussions with the client, and what the data suggested about user behavior. We suggested making the following changes:
• Optimize the mobile experience (80% of traffic for LPs was mobile).
• Simplify the layout to a single column layout.
• Reduce the amount of hidden information.
• Look at a navigational element to relieve the long scroll.
• Optimize the mobile experience (80% of traffic for LPs was mobile).
• Simplify the layout to a single column layout.
• Reduce the amount of hidden information.
• Look at a navigational element to relieve the long scroll.
Process
Getting to this list came about through collaboration with one of Conversion Sciences' Data Scientists. We were able to partner with CSU Online to gain meaningful insights for the websites traffic patterns and turn them into actionable insights. Pairing these insights along with a heuristic review gave us a path forward to think through the users intended experience and how the UI may change.
As you can see from the screenshots above and the prototype below, CSU Online has a main navigational header that span across their website. This was a challenge to overcome for our specific Landing Pages, as we wanted to add page specific navigation. Due to the nature of how the changes would be implemented through Conversion Sciences on CSU Online, online minor user testing was held before implementing the below prototype. As Conversion Science builds quick live tests on top of the live sites to gather as much user data as possible to refine. before moving on.
Desktop prototype version 3.2. Note the change from site nav to page nav in the header. The page nav is interactive. Note the toggle state is not functional as intended, it should shift from gold to green.
Mobile prototype version 3.2. Mobile site nav is hidden in the hamburger (not interactive in this prototype). The page nav is interactive. Note the toggle state is not functional as intended, it should shift from gold to green.
Results
Luckily CSU Online believes in the journey of listening to the user's data to build the best experience for them. This live testing, for their entire site continues as refinements are found and places for improvement are located. Most of these improvements have tested positively and oveal there was close to a .5% lift across the initial testing time.
