Minneapolis Web Design, Minneapolis Web Development
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Case Study: Saint Paul College
The Challenge
Saint Paul College is a community college focused on developing skilled professionals in high demand industries. Saint Paul College came to Net Dynasty looking to increase enrollment, realign their web site with their brand, and bring their site into Section 508 web accessibility compliance. The old web site violated several Section 508 and brand standards specifications and was overall highly unusable and uninviting in nature.
The Solution
After several usability studies on the University of Minnesota and Saint Paul College campuses two major discoveries were made.
- The enrollment process was unclear and confusing for both new and returning students
- Students preferred a portal layout that presented a lot of links necessary for daily campus activities.
A new homepage was designed to meet the needs of the current and potential students by clearly outlining the "5 steps to success." Additionally, 80% of commonly used links were organized categorically on the homepage to provide one stop access to much of the college's on-line resources. To address the uninviting feeling and brand standards issues, Net Dynasty heavily studied the brand standards manual and decided to use a much brighter color palette and alternative image treatments. Furthermore, Section 508 standards were strictly adhered to and a tableless design was chosen to maximize accessibility to screen readers.
The Benefit
- Increases in enrollment where seen the following two semesters.
- Student approval of the web site's usability and overall attractiveness was increased %15 from the initial usability study.
- Full Section 508 accessibility compliance
The Relationship
Net Dynasty and Saint Paul College have had a strong working relationship since August of 2004 and are planning on transferring the Net Dynasty homepage design to the rest of the Saint Paul College web site.