3. Take a look at St. Clair Colleges website. In relation to visuals, what would you propose to St. Clair College to improve/enhance this new website to effectively market to potential incoming local domestic students. Please provide three (3) recommendations and justify your answer with detailed reasoning. (9 Marks)
- The first thing that I would propose to St. Clair College to improve its website concerning visuals would simply be to include more visuals on the site’s homepage. The school’s site has a generic homepage with a very large amount of written copy and a Pano image of the school itself. It does not use plain language and instead provides users with long words and sentences. The navigation bar also uses this type of language and is far from what one would typically expect. The few visual elements on the page are small or used as background images for articles.
I would suggest that they use large, responsive visuals that keep the site flowing as you scroll. They could take inspiration from websites such as The School Of MAD or Pepsi as both sites are good examples of responsive design. I would suggest this as an improvement for the website as having more visuals on a site in general has been proven to be more enticing to online users. This type of website design is also becoming increasingly popular as time goes on and the school should keep up with modern trends.
- My second suggestion for St. Clair College’s website would be to include more statistic/location-based visuals on the site such as maps or infographics to keep the content engaging and entertaining for users. Using maps on the homepage could also be helpful for the target audience (domestic students) as they could familiarize themselves with the school’s location and what surrounds it.
Including a section specifically speaking to domestic students would be beneficial as well as the site currently only contains one for international students. This would allow the target audience to feel more welcome on the site and interact more.
Including these elements on St. Clair College’s website would keep their target market and general users more engaged, consistently interacting with the site and its content/CTAs.
- The final element that I would suggest to enhance the school’s website would be to include more visuals of life around campus and the restaurants/facilities on campus and nearby. This would be helpful for domestic students as they could better prepare themselves for life on campus and know where to find what they are looking for.
These visuals could include images/videos of the school’s cafeteria, classrooms, and recreational areas. This would be beneficial to St. Clair as well as their target audience as the visuals would show off how campus life can be, as well as depict the school’s amenities in a positive light. There could even be student testimonials accompanying them mentioning either the spot pictured or the entire school.
The current site does not even have a clear section to find this type of content, visual or written. Young people going into college want to know what they are getting themselves into. They may be nervous or excited, and relying on a virtual tour is not the answer to all their questions. Focusing a part of the website on the social aspect of post-secondary education could be greatly beneficial.
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