| Jun 27, 2024
Academic Program Finders Best Practices and Examples
![Academic Program Finders Best Practices and Examples](https://aha.elliance.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2024/06/Academic-Program-Finders-Best-Practices-and-Examples-1024x683.png)
In the era of declining college enrollments, every student matters. Norman Nielsen Group research shows that because of poor website user experience, almost half (48%) of prospective students didn’t realize that the university offered the program that they were looking for even when it did. The primary doorway for finding a program is through academic program finders. It’s essential for user experience architects to develop intuitive and user-friendly academic program finders to cater to the search habits of impatient Gen-Z and Gen-X prospects.
Best Practices and Strategies for Developing Academic Program Finders
Elliance uses the following best practices to build academic program finders that are functional, informational, user-friendly and engaging:
- Offer the option to view all majors and programs.
- Offer A-Z ordering and logical groupings by field of study, school, degree type, format, location, career path, etc.
- Offer logical filters like fields of study, schools, degree types, formats, locations, career paths, etc.
- Offer the option to view programs in lists or visual grids.
- Ensure it’s responsive and works well on various devices, including desktops, tablets, and smartphones.
- Ensure it’s accessible for people with disabilities and machine readers.
Examples of Effective Academic Program Finders
Here are three examples of program finders we’ve built:
For Few Program Offerings: Simple Lists
HIU is a specialty interfaith university that only offers 6 graduate programs, 3 certificates and 2 pathways. Simple lists suffice to steer prospects to HIU program offerings.
![](https://aha.elliance.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2024/06/Interreligious-Peace-Studies-Degree-Programs-Hartford-International-University.png)
For Larger Set of Program Offerings: Checkboxes and Filters
Seeking new revenue streams, Saint Vincent College has expanded beyond its traditional 4-year degree programs to include a growing array of online courses, graduate programs, pre-professional tracks, and certificate offerings. To quickly navigate the portfolio of more than 100 programs, we created an intuitive system of checkboxes and filters.
![](https://aha.elliance.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2024/06/Degree-Explorer-Latrobe-PA-Saint-Vincent-College.png)
For Very Large Set of Program Offerings: Checkboxes, Filters and Keyword Search Boxes
With a unique approach to education, Olds College offers numerous professional trade programs, a large number of 2-year associate degrees, and a few 4-year bachelor’s degrees. We created a system of checkboxes, filters and keyword search boxes to navigate their large collection of programs.
![](https://aha.elliance.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2024/06/Programs-Courses.png)
Learn more about our higher education marketing and website redesign services. If you plan to build an intuitive, informative and user-friendly website that attracts, engages and converts prospects into enrolled students and donors, consider partnering with us.