— WHAT I DID
Research & findings report
User personas
Journey mapping exercise & consultation report
Content strategy & IA
Wireframes
Content development
— TOOLS
Google Docs
Google Slides
InDesign
— FOR HOW LONG
1 year
rutgers-camden admissions
Rutgers-Camden had recently updated their brand language and needed a writer to refresh the Admissions site with new messaging. The catch? All three Rutgers locations were partaking in a university-wide web redesign in 2022. So I was tasked with the job of creating a “bandaid site” for the interim.
One major thing Rutgers-Camden changed in their brand language was cutting out the flowery, academic jargon to instead focus on the information that these resilient and invested students really need. Using my own experience with college applications, analytics reports, and a review of the site content, I felt that the site needed more than just new copy. While understanding that the Rutgers-Camden Admissions site was only temporary, the art director and I worked together to rearrange and condense web content with a more streamlined architecture.
Our work has now been replaced by the new Rutgers-wide site, but it helped guide prospective students through the process for nearly a year.
rutgers university journey mapping
After the success of this site evolution, Rutgers University brought our team back for another project. To prepare for the plan to implement a more user-friendly admissions experience for all 3 campus sites, we gathered insights through research exercises and plotted the user journeys to help guide their future development.
We conducted interviews with high school students, current Rutgers students, parents, guidance counselors, and Rutgers staff from all campuses to paint a comprehensive picture of prospective students’ journeys and the kind of information they seek. We asked questions in a way that helped us plot the decision-making process from general awareness of a college to enrollment.
We then presented our insights to Rutgers leadership and left them with suggestions for how they can create a better experience for students with their new site.
A screenshot of our notes from each audience group, before we distilled them into useful suggestions for the Rutgers team
