Web Team blogEnhancing user experience on course pages - lessons from surveys
In this post, we're excited to share the valuable insights we've gained over the past two years by utilising the power of Hotjar to survey real users.
We've been focusing specifically on gathering feedback about the course pages on our website and we'll delve into the significant amount of data we've collected, providing us with a deeper understanding of what our users think about these pages and the best practices we've identified for creating an exceptional user experience.
Through Hotjar, we've been able to promptly identify areas that posed clear issues for our users, enabling us to make immediate tweaks and enhancements. We've also made a point of sharing user feedback with our faculty colleagues, but we believe this is a wonderful opportunity to share these insights more widely.
Join us as we explore the lessons we've learned and offer practical best practices that can elevate course pages and create an outstanding user experience.
What is Hotjar?
Hotjar is an insights tool that allows us to understand user behaviour on our website through things like heatmaps and user surveys. The surveys can be triggered in many ways:
- time-delayed
- on scroll
- when a user is about to leave the website
Our surveys have been triggered when users move their cursor to the address bar (and are therefore about to leave the website).
What information were users looking for?
The first thing we asked users was what information they were looking for on the page. And it was interesting to see the differences in the answers between undergraduate and postgraduate taught users.
Undergraduate (UG)
UG users were mainly looking for entry requirements, followed by general information about the course. Information on fees and how to apply is possibly relatively small here due to the high percentage of home and rest of UK students.
| Answer | Percentage |
|---|---|
| General information about the course | 28% |
| Entry requirements | 42% |
| Course content | 15% |
| Fees | 5% |
| How to apply | 3% |
| Other | 8% |
Postgraduate taught (PGT)
PGT users were much more varied in their information requirements. Fees, for example, are much more of a concern given the nature of PGT courses versus UG. Similarly, with no UCAS route for PGT, information on how to apply is more pertinent for this level.
| Answer | Percentage |
|---|---|
| General information about the course | 25% |
| Entry requirements | 25% |
| Course content | 12% |
| Fees | 20% |
| How to apply | 10% |
| Other | 9% |
How did users rate the quality of information on the page?
The good news is that the vast majority of users found the information on the pages to be good, rating it a 4 or a 5. This suggests that the extensive research and testing carried out prior to launching the new designs in 2018 provided a good foundation.
Undergraduate
| Answer | Percentage |
|---|---|
| 5 (very good) | 44% |
| 4 | 36% |
| 3 | 14% |
| 2 | 3% |
| 1 (poor) | 3% |
Postgraduate taught
| Answer | Percentage |
|---|---|
| 5 (very good) | 42% |
| 4 | 34% |
| 3 | 17% |
| 2 | 4% |
| 1 (poor) | 4% |
Lessons learned - how can we improve course information
While the feedback was good overall, there were some themes of common suggestions from users. These include more information on course modules, application deadlines and teaching staff.
Course modules
A suggestion from several users was to expand course module information including things like:
- who teaches on the module and their expertise
- more information on the syllybus and provide a list of topics
- how the module is taught, for example, in-person lectures or tutorials
- how many hours per week for each module
- how the module is assessed
- what support is available to students. Are staff available outside of class, for example?
- number of credits
- consistent level of detail for each module. Some modules are very in-depth, while others have less detail
Entry requirements
Clearer entry requirements was another of the most common requests. This was particularly true for users on UG pages (as these tend to be more complex than PGT).
Other commons themes
- specific application deadline and start date
- career destinations of graduates
- potential salaries when graduating
- questions around whether there is a January intake
- how students can apply for the next academic cycle
Next up
For my next blog, we'll take all we've learned from above, and talk through how to create the perfect course page.
Euan Harris, Digital Content Officer.
I joined Strathclyde in 2017, having worked in a range of industries including NGOs, software and agency.
I'm passionate about digital marketing and have a keen interest in search engine optimisation and analytics.
Outside of work, I can be found spending time with my family of three lovely children. And if I'm VERY lucky, I might have time to sit down and write for my own website, where I share my love of the juniper spirit!