Project Overview
Choosing a university degree can be a daunting and time-consuming task, with too many university brochures and irrelevant careers websites to browse. Deakin University approached Hardhat to take the pain out of this process by creating a one-stop-shop for linking courses with careers in way that was less overwhelming and more meaningful for students than ever before.
Project Commissioner
Project Creator
Team
Group Account Director: Issy Bonin
Account Director: Alex Harrison
Senior Strategist: Ben Robertson
Art Director: Toni McCann
Producer: Romina Thaler
Developer: Erik Froese
Front End Developer: Pietro Di Marzo
Front End Developer: Chris Lucas
Project Brief
Deakin University set out to reinvent the way students learn about courses and careers. Year 11 and 12 students were the primary audience, yet their unfamiliarity with the university system and decreasing attention spans have historically made it difficult to engage them.
Research revealed that students felt overwhelmed by the amount of information provided by universities which ranged from lengthy course guides, to numerous websites, all with limited career outcomes. And, most importantly, whilst there were countless sites that suggested which careers you might be interested in, and others that highlighted available courses, there was a real gap in the market for a tool that brought the two together - something allowing students to start their research from either end of the journey whether their exploration was career or course orientated.
Hardhat was to create a first of its kind tool, that paired courses with careers, without inundating prospective students with information. The goal was to help students discover their options by providing the helpful information they wanted, instead of the overwhelming information that was often misunderstood to be needed. The team wanted a site that students could seamlessly browse in a fashion that felt familiar.
Project Need
Hardhat created a responsive (mobile first) website called Deakin Explore, which enabled students to review courses and the careers they lead to, or in turn start with a career to find courses that can lead to it. Tiered levels of information facilitated incremental buy in from the user as they progressed, ensuring they were only ever presented with the amount of information that matched their appetite. With the addition of Favourites, students could also mark the courses and careers they identified with as they continued to explore.
Deakin Explore provided an additional layer in the course selection process, helping to make the search for a perfect course more streamlined and focused, ultimately simplifying the process. It was essential that Deakin Explore was easy to navigate, with an approachable tone without being overly casual. The information prompted users to click through for more detailed information.
To help expand students’ options, similar careers and courses were also displayed within individual course/career pages to ensure users were exposed to all options. The information was also colour coded by interest area, to further increase the ease of use.
User Experience
To make the process feel less like ‘research’ and more familiar to students, design cues were taken from social media platforms, using card-like facets to display information within a scrolling feed. This was crucial to making the tool user friendly, whilst also tapping into the user’s existing behaviour of infinite scrolling.
Once a ‘card’ was clicked on, the user was taken to a course or career detail page with some more information, including: about the course; what will I learn; great for the kind of person who…; how long is the course; and Year 12 prerequisites. This information was quick to absorb, but painted an accurate picture of the course and the work it involved, acting as a springboard for the user to research the course in more detail.
Hardhat used pioneering technology so that the site worked on and offline, to allow students to browse on mobile, without using the students’ valuable mobile data when out range of WiFi. This meant the page had to be quick to load and not require much memory to save.
Results revealed that users spent 300% more time browsing the site, compared to other course information websites.
Project Marketing
Hardhat created a gamified launch with careers practitioners from all over Victoria at Deakin’s Career practitioner Expo. The launch encouraged practitioners to use the app whilst demonstrating the breadth of its assistance. By encouraging them to engage with the tool and it’s features, the demonstration proved to be a key activity for introducing the application to schools and colleges across Victoria.
In addition, targeted display ads on social media were used to build awareness and interest amongst students, paired with a retargeting strategy to drive repeat visitation and account creation.
Project Privacy
Deakin University respects the privacy of users of its website and complies with the Privacy and Data Protection Act 2014 (Vic).
Digital - EdTech
EdTech focuses on how education is changing through technology, changing the way we learn and process knowledge. What will stand out here is those that enhance the learning experience and make a lasting impression.
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