For more than 100 years, University of Illinois’ Gies Business has intentionally designed its innovative programs, leading-edge curriculum, and experiential learning opportunities to empower and prepare students to turn big ideas into meaningful actions. The main objective was to create a centralized hub for Gies Online by consolidating all domains. We wanted to do this in a way that would reinforce their leadership position, with their new platform serving as a comprehensive catalog of online programming.

The overhaul of Gies Business Online resulted in a 20% increase in site traffic.

→ Navigation lacks accessibility and intuitiveness for a diverse audience
Our target audience was prospective degree students, prospective non-degree students, and current students. Each of the student’s pathways differed greatly, so a typical hero with a main call to action wasn’t going to be an equal solve.

→ Prospective students were overwhelmed by offerings

→ Most users didn’t understand Gies Online’s main value proposition
“Stackability” is the idea that students can take courses individually or combine them to earn a certificate, specialization, or degree. This selling point was lost on new users because it is a unique term coined by the university itself.

→ Most users didn’t understand Gies Business’ connection to the University of Illinois.
When users would land on Gies Business, there was a lack of connection between it and the University of Illinois and it would cause disorientation and lose the value that the university name brings.

→ Catered to a diverse audience by making navigation accessible and intuitive for each user.
We enhanced the browsing experience by implementing a hero navigation, immediately communicating Gies’ diverse learning tracks. This also works to cater to our users’ varied needs and find a program that aligns with them. We also made updates to the main navigation to streamline and simplify the experience through grouping related content into clear categories and decluttering it from secondary or unrelated information.

→ Alleviated prospective student overwhelm of offerings.
We ensured that each category of offerings and learning track was easily scan-able, filterable, and universally understood. Cards featured clear hierarchy of high-priority information and a consistent paradigm throughout the site. On the Course Catalogue specifically, we included a featured section as well as the full catalogue so the user has two effective ways of browsing depending on their needs.

→ Made Gies Online’s main value proposition—“stackable” courses—universally understandable.
To make this concept unique to the University understood by everyone, we wove in consistent messaging and created an accessible browsing experience that listed each learning track and the programs available within them.

→ Highlighted Gies Business’ connection to University of Illinois.
To help enforce the connection between the business school and the University of Illinois, we created an introductory section on the homepage with key language, as well as worked copy in throughout the site.