Best of CASE District VII Award
 

Institution: University of California, Davis

Title of entry: UC Davis Homesite

About this entry: The UC Davis (4.1M annual users) homesite’s framework needed a significant upgrade that required extensive retooling (Drupal 7 to Drupal 8). We took this opportunity to reorganize, restructure, and refresh the existing web content and design with three main priorities: (1) streamline the user experience of navigating the university admissions process for prospective students, (2) elevate the recognition of UC Davis’ regional location, and (3) showcase our new digital branding in preparation for a national campaign.

We achieved these goals by (1) a robust content strategy based heavily on analytics, heatmaps, and user feedback, (2) new web presences elevating regional awareness with pages dedicated to Davis as California’s College Town and Davis as In the Middle of Everywhere, and (3) building new web components and layouts that kept our big clean designs intact while tastefully introducing digital versions of wood-cut illustrations and watercolor to align with our new brand.

The effort simplified navigating complex material for thousands of students, and allowed UC Davis to utilize a brand new website for the entire 2021 Yield cycle, which helped lead to a record number of student acceptance.