BestColleges.com was the flagship website for Higher Education in 2018. While working there I redefined the brand, the digital experience, and the monetization strategy.
I worked at Higher Education from 2015-2020 on a number of websites and internal applications. I designed responsive websites, prototyped experiences, created illustrations, and built design systems.
Timeline and Contribution
Role
Senior Product Designer
Although the website was reasonably successful, our research indicated that several problems were hindering financial growth — the design itself was severely outdated, the marketing strategy was non-existent, and the monetization system needed some improvements.
Problem
Through a number of design refinements and monetization changes, BestColleges.com became a reputable and financially successful brand in the education space. The updated search tool led to a 22% increase in conversion rate, and because of this, Higher Education was acquired by Red Ventures in 2019. This case study represents a small sample of the work involved.
Outcome
Search Tool
An important part of revenue was our School Finder — which was essentially a college search widget that funneled users to a school database page. By uplifting the design and streamlining the search process, user conversion rate increased by an estimated 22%.
Landing pages played a large role in the new monetization strategy by funneling users into certain key pages and forms. A number of key landing pages were designed and developed, which incorporated new illustrations, icons, and brand elements.
Landing Pages
In partnership with Tether.com, we built an entirely new brand and visual language for Best Colleges. We focused on targeted words, like spirited, reassuring, and knowledgable to create brand characteristics, before crafting the identity and brand voice. The color pallet, imagery, iconography, and website design was all done in-house.
Branding
While redesigning Best Colleges, we built out an entirely new design system. It encompasses every treatment, color, typography style, content module, and use-case scenario within the Best Colleges web experience. The design system eventually became the template for a variety of other sites within the Higher Education portfolio.
Design System