Buried Information
Students can't find deadlines, forms, or contact info buried three clicks deep inside department pages
Built Around How Students Use It,
Not How Departments Are Organized Internally
StudentFirst Design puts the student experience ahead of departmental convenience,
because that's who's actually navigating the site.
Why This Matters
Think about how most college websites are actually organized, admissions gets a section, financial aid gets a section, the registrar gets a section, each one built by a different office with its own priorities. Makes total sense internally. Makes zero sense to a prospective student trying to figure out how to apply, or a current student hunting for their financial aid deadline at 11pm. Nobody navigates a university by department — they navigate by task: apply, pay, register, graduate. A student doesn't care which office owns a page; they care whether it answers their question in the next ten seconds. Our job is designing around that reality, not around who built what.
StudentFirst Design flips that. We map the actual journeys students take, applying, registering, requesting aid, finding an advisor, and design around those paths instead of your org chart. Other industries call this UI/UX. We just build it specifically around how students, families, faculty, and staff actually move through a higher ed site.
A Pattern Worth Naming
Ask five campus offices what the ideal homepage looks like and you'll get five different answers, each one convinced their department deserves top billing. The student trying to find their financial aid deadline doesn't care who won that argument.
So we design around the student's path first, then work backward into where each office's content actually belongs.
Key Deliverables
Every website redesign starts from a different place — some institutions need a full rebuild, others just need better navigation. Strip away the specifics, though, and here's what stays consistent across every engagement:
- User journey mapping for prospective students, current students, faculty, and staff
- Information architecture that reflects how people actually search, not how departments are structured
- Responsive design across mobile, tablet, and desktop, since most prospective students are on a phone
- Usability testing with real student and staff feedback, not just internal assumptions
What's included service?
- - User journey mapping and research
- - Task-based information architecture design
- - Mobile-first responsive design build
- - Real user usability testing
The Solution
Common Points we Solve
FAQs
Frequently Asked
Questions
Questions
Not really — most college sites mirror the org chart, not how a 17-year-old actually decides.
No — we audit and preserve URL structure and redirects before touching anything.
Typically a few months in phases — we'll give you a realistic number, not a marketing one.
Both — copy that doesn't change usually means the underlying problem didn't either.
Contact
Let’s Build
Intelligent Things
Intelligent Things
E-mail address
hello@youraiagency.com
Phone number
+1 (647) 555 0172