Building on a firm foundation

Oklahoma Baptist University offers a compelling mix of academics and athletics in a nurturing, faith-based environment just east of Oklahoma City. The Research & Design team was thrilled at the chance to show off the unique strengths of OBU by updating the university's website design.

Project

Website Redesign

View Live Site

Deliverables

UX Design

Visual Design

Implementation

Architecting a flexible design

Flexibility was key on this project as OBU had redesigned their website a few years prior and had brought the Research & Design team in midstream to make some key improvements. Our challenge was to take OBU's site to the next level in terms of design attractiveness and user navigation while working carefully to stay within the overall site framework and budget.

Working alongside a great team

Our role was to build on the existing strengths of OBU’s online presence by working alongside the university's internal team to add value. We applied ourselves to listening to the OBU team and understanding their upgrade needs. Research & Design internalized the school's design guidelines and found ways to enhance site infrastructure. We also added video capability to the institution's home page to better showcase campus life.

Improving on the existing structure

We used OBU’s existing Cascade back-end to make some necessary template changes that facilitated the enhanced functionality and video capabilities that the school was looking for. Research & Design streamlined program pages while working in harmony with existing typographical guidelines and overall site navigation flow. Our team provided the continuous improvement OBU needed through smart coding strategies and a multimedia approach to the homepage design to show off highlights of the OBU experience.

The finishing touches

Careful not to try to reinvent the wheel, we revitalized OBU’s front end while working in harmony with existing typographical guidelines and overall site navigation flow. We served as a knowledge partner that helped OBU communicate the unique benefits it offered to students. We applied rigorous quality assurance right up to launch day, working carefully with the OBU team to ensure that we were meeting their expectations at every step.

The result?
A website built for performance.

Our work reaped tangible upticks in key metrics that were important to OBU. Graduate application visits improved and international application visits grew by 38%. Also, there were more requests for information as a result of our upgrade. In terms of site functionality, our work decreased OBU’s page loading time by almost 40%. After the upgrade, search results were twice as effective at providing visitors with desired content.

73%

Increase to visits to graduate application

37%

Decrease in page load time

22%