Higher Education
A faculty asked for a website. The problem was three levels up.
A faculty at a South African public university
Illustrative engagement
- Evidence label
- Illustrative engagement
- Duration
- 11 weeks
- Diagnostic hierarchy
- Levels 2 and 7
- Frameworks applied
- GoTo360™, GoTo Brand Compass™, GoTo Digital Blueprint™
01
Evidence statement
What this page claims, and what it does not
Structurally representative of the firm’s work in this sector. Client identity withheld. Figures shown are the kind of measures agreed at the Define stage, not reported results.
02
The brief and the diagnosis
02The presenting request
Replace an outdated faculty website ahead of the recruitment cycle.
“Our website is old and we are losing applicants to better-looking institutions.”
What we found
The site was dated, but the applicants were not lost at the website. Three departments described the faculty’s offer in three incompatible ways, and no one owned the message. The recruitment problem sat at level two, strategy and clarity of direction, and level seven, positioning and message. A new site built on the existing message would have reproduced the confusion at higher resolution.
Diagnostic hierarchy: Levels 2 and 7
03
Approach
03How the work was run
Approach.
- 01Two-week discovery: executive interviews across the three departments, message audit grid across all public channels, digital presence audit with measured load times.
- 02Positioning workshop to establish one description of the faculty offer that all three departments could state.
- 03A standardised departmental page pattern rather than three bespoke builds, so the estate stays maintainable.
- 04Accessibility to WCAG 2.1 AA built into the pattern rather than applied per page.
- 05Training and handover to departmental administrators, with the handover register naming every account created.
Delivered
Discovery Report and Current State Assessment
Message architecture and positioning statement
Departmental page pattern and content model
Faculty site rebuilt on the pattern
Training record and handover pack
04
Measures
04Success measures
Specific, sourced and dated. Agreed at the Define stage.
The figures below are illustrative targets of the kind agreed at Define. They are not reported results, and this page does not present them as such.
| Measure | Baseline | Target | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Qualified enquiries from the faculty site | 40 per month | 65 per month by 31 March | Google Analytics 4 |
| Departmental pages meeting the accessibility standard | 0 of 14 | 14 of 14 at launch | Automated audit plus manual keyboard testing |
| Median mobile load time, primary pages | 6.1 seconds | Under 2.5 seconds | Throttled measurement, South African network location |
Handover
Handover pack issued on the day of launch. Domain and hosting registered in the institution’s name.
05
Related
Frameworks applied
Services involved
Book a Discovery Session
The most useful first step is a discovery conversation.
A structured session that produces a written problem statement, whether or not it leads to an engagement. If the problem is not one we should be paid to solve, we will say so.
Enquiries acknowledged within one business day, always.