Web design for schools and colleges could be challenging as these websites are intended for multiple different sets of audiences simultaneously. Each of the audience needs different information and the challenge is all the information for everyone should be easily available and accessible. For example, the prospective students might be interested in the campus-related details, photos, videos, etc. The current students would be interested in their progress reports, class schedules, attendance, etc. The parents might be more interested in the online portal to pay the tuition fee. The lecturer and professors might be interested in announcements, or promotions of their new courses or any such information. Each of these audiences has different preferences, different tasks that they might want to perform and are interested in entirely different types of information. This is what makes the web design very complex for schools and colleges website. This also raises the importance of the web design not only for new conversions but for student/teacher retention also.
Mostly you might have noticed all of the schools’ and colleges’ web designs are somewhat similar to one another, this similarity is very prominent if we talk about the eCommerce web designs in Dubai, UAE. This similarity has an important purpose, each visitor when they land on a website they expect something from it which they might be familiar with or had a past experience about that is the reason all of the eCommerce websites all around the world look somewhat similar. The problem is not with the visitors, and it is not the case that they don’t appreciate the change, but the biggest problem with school and college web design is if you deviate from the expectations of your customers/visitors, and if you deviate too much, the innovative, out of the box, design approach could turn into a marketing disaster. It could completely ruin the customer experience. So our web design has to be focused on providing the required information as well as standing out of the crowd.
Here is some basic instruction for a different section of the school and college website or any other educational institute’s web design:
Homepage
The homepage should be very appealing, you should use a good image/banner slider having up to 5 items on it. The catch here is rather than using general taglines, which are usually not so conclusive, better to use unique sale propositions. That kind of taglines is more appealing and more attractive. The menu and the logo of the institution should have a reasonable size, not so much oversized and not so small either. A medium-size banner slider would be suitable for a school or college website. The content should be designed specifically for the targeted audiences and corresponding sections of the website. Then the lower sections of the homepage should be interconnected and a flow has to be maintained to relate all the information. Sudden huge design changes are a bit confusing for the visitors, try to avoid that, but in case if you have to change the structure from one style to another, then use at least one intermediary section to cool down the transitional effects. This will impact less on user experience and user’s eyes. These are very simple things but when it comes to user behaviour and interaction with the website these minute details can make a huge difference.
About Us Page
Typically all websites have an About Us page, for schools and colleges usually about us page have the same history of the institution, missing and vision statements, senior management and/or faculty and such things. These all things are very important, especially the mission and vision statement. Make sure it is visible and prominent. Do not overdo it but make sure the mission and vision are highlighted. Then another important factor is the board members or senior management who are running the institution’s operations. Apart from board members, you can also enlist the senior faculty members and HODs of different departments. Having a few images of the facility could also help to attract more attention along with the details about the facility and its features. Try to think from the visitor’s point of view and try to differentiate yourself from the others.
Inner Pages
The inner pages can be created or personalized for their exclusive audience. For example, the student pages can have the information required by the students. For the parents and faculty, their respective sections or pages can be designed to provide the information they might be interested in. There are certain pages that are far more important than others in driving more leads. For example, the course page is the most viewed page by the students and their parents while making a decision of admission to any institutions. This page should be given more attention. You should have a good strategy to form a customer journey, which will convert the prospects into leads.
Start with educating the visitors, then provide the list of courses and also mention the value they can add to their career or education. This helps the user to choose the right fit for their requirements. The next and final step is having a great CTA or Call to Action button. As in the case of schools and colleges, the actual sales are done by the admission teams, so the CTA is only required to provide an opportunity for the first interaction with the admission team by providing the contact information of the visitors to the admission office and vice versa. Make sure the visitors are not diverting to a new page after hitting the CTA. It is good to provide a short form on the same page. Similarly, define the purpose of all inner pages and make a strategy to utilize them to achieve your objectives.
Navigation
Every web design strategy is incomplete without a comprehensive understanding and planning of the website navigation. The navigation is the roadmap of all the information that are lying inside the website. Ideally, each and every piece of information a visitor is seeking should be available within a few clicks. The visitors don’t have to search them or look them up on various pages. That is why a menu is always added in any web design. Especially for school and college websites, as multiple audiences are converging on a single landing page which is your homepage so your web design and the navigation should be able to route customers to their corresponding section of the website. The website navigation along with the various web design elements form up a navigational structure, which can be used to form a customer journey. The CTA and call to action should be at easy-to-navigate places along with convincing signals to improve conversion rate.
Content
The content is an extremely important part of a school or college website. As in such websites, mostly the parents, students and visitors are more inclined towards textual content as well. So, use plain and simple language, avoid too much use of technical terminologies and difficult words. Choose pictures, videos and graphics that align with the subject of the page. Do not overuse multimedia content. Provide the downloadable materials too. Use taglines and sales pitches on all prominent pages. Avoid too many details and long boring content, make sure the content is descriptive yet interesting too. The visitor’s engagement is very important. It is extremely important to keep your website content and information up-to-date. The school and college websites must-have news and events sections, make sure these two sections are up-to-date. The blog is a very effective communication channel, make sure your blog is set up properly and categories your blog posts to make the navigations easier.
Dynamic or CMS Based Web Design
As a website for school and college requires continuous updates and section that require regular content posting, it is a must to have a dynamic/CMS based website development. The CMS or content management system is a software tool that enables ordinary (not familiar with programming) people to update the website content and various sections without requiring to update any source code. Without a dynamic website, the schools and colleges will have to hire a full-time web developer or should outsource it to a vendor to support them with their regular content updates and other needs. Hiring a new asset for this purpose is a continuous cost, outsourcing is a bit less costly but not so efficient. These days almost 99% of the new websites developed for commercial use are dynamic and have a CMS to keep the content and media up-to-date.
Responsive
A responsive web design automatically adjusts itself as per the screen size it is being accessed from. As per a lot, many types of research and studies the smartphone internet searches have already surpassed the regular computers and laptops. In Dubai, UAE more than 90% of the residents have access to high-speed internet and they also own a smartphone. In fact, smartphone owner is way too higher than laptop owners. It is very important to have a responsive website to ensure you are not losing the incoming traffic from smartphone and mobile devices. People will search for your school or college website from their smartphones and mobile devices, so make sure you are providing a similar user experience in the mobile phone devices and the desktop or traditional computers.
Search Engine Optimization/SEO and Social Media
Search Engine Optimization is also known as SEO and social media are a very important factor in online conversions. These days the studies suggest most of the purchase decisions are hugely influenced by online information. The search engines are responsible for driving up to 90% of the traffic to a website. Everyone is searching in Google or on Social Media to learn about the brands, and these mediums are very influential. Google and Social Media scan each and every website, there are certain indicators on the website which let them understand the content and objectives of the page, then they direct traffic accordingly to the pages. Having a search engine friendly website helps search engines and various social media pages to index the content of those pages which can later be presented in the search results and people can reach your website from there. This is a great source of generating online traffic which can later be translated to online conversions.
Security and Speed
As websites for schools and colleges usually have various portals such as student’s portal, parent’s portal, faculty or teacher’s portal. These portals may contain sensitive information about the users. It is very important that the web design and website development is done as per the industry standards and security compliances. Security is very important as any data leak or a data breach can completely ruin the reputation of the entire school or college. It is always recommended to follow best industry practices to ensure the highest security. The website page speed is also important. We usually notice that the school and colleges don’t pay much attention to their slow websites, but it is very bad for a brand reputation and also it repels visitors, which could have a negative impact on online sales. The page speed should be optimized by intelligent web design methodologies and good web development practices. A fast loading website always leaves a good impression on the user/visitor.
Conclusion
Website design for school and colleges is very important for maintaining online conversions. A school or college is very different from any other enterprise or business. Actually, the biggest difference is that there are multiple audience groups that are landing on the website and the web design should be able to manage and route all of these different sets of visitors to their customer journey. This slightly differentiates the ordinary web design from a school or college website. The homepage is the most important part, the about us page, inner pages, and other sections all work in harmony to ensure more online conversions. For a school or college having a continuous communication channel with their audience is very curtail, make sure your website would be able to handle that. That is why always dynamic and CMS (content management system) based website is always recommended for schools and colleges. The website security and page speed/loading speed are also very important. The responsiveness, SEO friendliness and social media platforms’ compatibility play a vital role in your online success.
Mostly the institutions don’t pay much attention to their websites. But in reality, a well-crafted web design for a school or college can boost their online sales and conversions and can improve the user experience too. The objective of this blog was to give our visitors a brief understanding of how the web design for school and college works. It is always better to acquire a professional web design Dubai company, such as RSI Concepts. You can reach us out from our Contact Us page or leave us a comment in the comment box below and we will revert back to you soon.
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