This week, we’re excited to launch new web pages to promote study exchange opportunities at the University.
Go abroad provides UdD students with study exchange opportunities and also with information and support on this topic. Its main focus is a list of overseas partner opportunities that students can consult to help them make a decision about where to study. To ensure this information is up-to-date and accurate, the content is sourced from its original source in SITS (the Student Records Management System) via a data feed and synchronized across the website. This includes:
- the partner’s name
- associated country
- subjects that students can study
- semester dates
- if the lessons are taught in English
We then have the option to enhance the pages with additional support content such as a photo or description.
To help students find opportunities that meet their needs, the complete list of members can be filtered by subject, country and taught in English.
Improvements
Design-wise, the contrast between the old and new pages is striking (see images below).
The new pages are clearer, more visually appealing and on-brand.
Design framework
One of the great advantages of the new University website is that all projects use the same extensive and flexible system of components (our design framework). In the case of the Go Abroad project, a design framework maximizes efficiency during site construction and means very little additional design work was required during the project.
Avoid confusion
We have also taken steps to ensure that content is aimed at the correct audience. One potential problem with older web pages that we identified was that a single section of the website catered to two very distinct groups of users with different needs, namely:
- current UoD students who want to study abroad
- overseas students who want to study in Dundee
With this in mind, we have created two separate sections on the website:
The old pages often used the terms « in or in » and « out or out » in reference to these different aspects of study abroad. By creating separate sections on the website for these defined audiences, there is less reliance on these terms and hopefully less scope for confusion.
The Go Abroad team is very pleased with the end result. Pam Brown (Go Abroad Manager) was keen to emphasize this saying,
“Our redesign and migration project was daunting at first, but thanks to the fabulous support, advice and regular updates from Web Services it has been a very smooth process and we are delighted with our new web pages. Great team to work with!”
Creating a new guide
A new guide – apply to study abroad – was created to give students the information they need to submit an application and helpfully illustrates the student’s journey from the application and beyond using our new timeline component.
Future projects
We know that for prospective students, study abroad options can play a big part in their decision to study here. As is often the case with our business, we’re always looking for ways to iterate and improve after launch. In this regard, we will explore the possibility of integrating study abroad information with course content to automatically display study exchange availability on our degree program pages.
