The Future of Education

Client

Strayer University

Lead UX Designer

My Role

I was the lead UX designer on a small cross-functional team:

UX designer
UI designer
Project Manager
Technical Architect

Teams Involved

Merkle partnered with Strayer University to enhance Strayer.edu, aiming to boost online applications and engagement. Beyond a site update, we led a comprehensive rebrand, launched a new campaign, and executed a full site redesign. The Strayer team, with ambitious goals for interactive tools, prioritized the phase 1 site redesign in our collaborative efforts. This project laid the groundwork for an elevated online presence for Strayer University.

Project Overview

The challenge

Our mission was to develop a cutting-edge website to captivate and engage potential students. To kick things off, we delved into a comprehensive understanding of the challenge, exploring it from all angles. Through Stakeholder Interviews, we aligned expectations with the business. To comprehend user needs, we dissected site metrics and drew insights from years of prospective student research collected by the Strayer team. Additionally, we benchmarked Strayer's existing site against industry best practices and competitor experiences.

DISCOVER & DEFINE

Crafting strategic solutions

With a solid grasp of the current state and identified opportunities for enhancement, we dived into strategic solutions. Our journey began with taxonomy work, defining the types of content that needed representation. To maintain consistency, we established brand tone and voice guidelines, empowering the Strayer team to create compelling content. Moving forward, we translated our insights into wireframes, envisioning a fully reimagined Strayer online experience.

Core team members

UX
UI
Content strategy
Developers & Architects

Summary of what we did

Taxonomy work & tree testing
Sitemap creation
Defining brand guidelines
Creating content outlines for pages across the site
Building out wireframes informed by the stragegy

CREATE

Bringing our solutions to life.

After establishing the structure of the reimagined site, our UI team took the reins to breathe life into the strategy. Expanding the voice and tone of Strayer University within the brand guidelines, we collaborated closely with the Strayer design team to revamp the entire site experience.

Core Team Members

UX
UI
Content
Technical

What we did

Created a design system
Created high fidelity page designs
Ran internal tests to review in progress work

Reimagining the Strayer homepage:

DOCUMENTATION

Handing off our work to development

Our team was not responsible for the build of the revised site but we wanted to ensure that all strategy and intended functionality was documented for the Strayer team. By collaborating with the entire core team and closely with the client we thoroughly documented each component.