Web Development & Consulting

At Academica, we adhere to the following best practices when developing user experience design:

• We review and conduct primary and secondary research to ensure that your site is the best it can be.
• We validate language and labelling for all key content in the existing content model.
• We extend documentation to include Key User Task Models for recruitment as a cross check against the Content Model. 
• We create and validate wireframes for all identified recruitment landing pages in cooperation with internal experts. 
• We create prototypes and perform focused usability testing with target audiences.

The four keys to a proper and current web user experience:

• Informative 
• Intuitive 
• Consistent 
• Honest

When designing a good user experience it‘s imperative to remember these four principles.

Educate your Audience

The true tone and voice of the university or college must be prevalent. By setting a tone of "discovery" as opposed to selling  through copy and content your audiences will be more receptive to your brand. 

Make the Experience Intuitive

Ensure your site has strong design features that are driven by usability - not novelty. Provide end users with (in this order):

• Clarity  
• Usability 
• Beauty

Keep it consistent
Maintain your brand standards whenever possible 

Keep it honest and communicative

Credibility is everything, especially when the goal is collecting personal information. 

Our Approach

More specifically our approach is best defined by this four-step process:

• We analyze what users need: develop user task models 
• We analyze what you have: develop a content model 
• We match these two models and identify problems 
• We use this to create your Information Architecture and develop content models and personas.

Web User Experience Design Research Validation
In our "Inception Phase" process we utilize primary and secondary research to guide and then validate architecture, usability, visual concepts and content direction.

We accomplish this in the following ways:

• UCAS & WebTrends Research Review
• Our research analysts provide us with insight from our's and other's latest research to give a evidence-based perspective on your website’s effectiveness.
• We complete comprehensive secondary research and user validation testing on proposed Information Architecture and User Interfaces utilzing:
  a) In Person Focus Interviews
  b) Online Interviews (overall site, brand, approach)