Homepage CRO Redesign and A/B Testing
Redesign of Carlow University’s homepage hero image for conversion rate optimization. While their undergraduate numbers were strong, Carlow wanted to increase their number of graduate students.
The challenge was to increase inquiries to graduate programs by redesigning the hero image space on their homepage. ​
Project Task and Role
Lead designer in charge of visual direction, interface design and prototyping.
Collaborated with web strategy team, front-end developer, copywriter, analytics team, creative director and project owner.
The existing hero space was occupied by a scrolling slider displaying a mix of very general messaging and very specific featured programs. There were four secondary CTAs partially below the fold for applying, requesting information, donating and a tuition calculator.
Our group’s recommendation was to A/B test replacing the scrolling slider with an image of an adult student and copy that speaks to the value of their school and education, while adding CTAs to explore both undergraduate and graduate programs.
This would provide quick access for potential graduate students to find the information they were looking for while also not alienating potential undergraduate students. We also recommended removing the donate and tuition calculator CTAs and bringing the apply and request information CTAs above the fold.
Research
The next step was to review the brand style guide and audit existing assets to better understand the brand and to find design elements and inspiration to pull from.
Concept Development
Taking direction and potential design elements from my research, I quickly sketched out several variations for mobile and desktop.
Wireframes
I refined a few of the sketches and then built a wireframe of my recommended design.
Prototypes of Recommended Design
The design was fully prototyped and mocked up for presentation to the client.
Client Feedback
The client was happy with the new UI/UX and while they appreciated the simplified visuals, they felt that their extended color pallette was something that helped differentiate them from competitors. They requested additional colors be used as well as adding a photo overlay behind the copy.
Final Design
Considering client feedback, I added a purple overlay behind the copy and brought their brand yellow into the design. Because the yellow was a small addition, I also and added the angles accented with lime to the secondary CTA buttons to make sure they felt it was on brand and distinctly Carlow.
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This version was approved and used as the variation in an A/B test against their original scrolling slider.
Results
The redesigned variation was a clear winner in this A/B test.
This test ran for around 45 days and had nearly 50,000 views on each version meaning these results were calculated at over 80% certainty.
Measuring graduate program inquiries, the conversion rate of the redesign increased by 13%.
In addition, it resulted in a 12.7% increase in applications and a 439% increase in graduate program page views.
These results showed the importance of getting users the information they are looking for easily and early in their student journey.