An Overview
Supplemental Instruction (SI) is a sub-department/program within the Academic Tutoring department at Utah Valley University. Until now, they did not have their own distinct brand and marketing resources, or website. This case study outlines the process of creating a brand Identity for SI, developing a look and feel of the style for all of the sub-department’s marketing materials, as well as the design, and development process of a brand new Supplemental Instruction website.
The Purpose & Problem
The central problem we are trying to solve with this style and brand rehaul, as well as the creation and development of a new SI website is to dramatically increase visibility of the supplemental instruction program to UVU students. Our intentions in developing a style and distinct identity for the Supplemental Instruction program is to semantically distinguish SI from it’s mother-department Academic Tutoring. SI operates under Academic Tutoring officially, but is very much it’s own program.
Before this brand rehaul and SI getting it’s own style and website, the program, and especially the marketing efforts attached to it were extremely buried and ineffective. The goal this project helps attain is for SI to be it’s own thing, market itself as it’s own thing, and as a result, reach more students to help them find academic success at UVU.
Out with the Old
Before having it’s own functional website, SI previously had it’s own sub-page on the Academic Tutoring website. This served a foundational purpose in providing at least a base layer of information about SI, but did not give the whole picture.
The previous web page dedicated to SI was simple, but attempted to pack much information about what SI is on one little web page. First, there was a brief summary as to what Supplemental instruction is. Following this, an entire lengthy section that took up way too much space was dedicated to identifying various UVU courses that offer SI.
Below this, there was finally a banner that directed you to a link that simply sent you to a completely other PDF document with more essential information about Supplemental Instruction. It wasn’t even on the web page itself!
The previous web page dedicated to SI was simple, but attempted to pack much information about what SI is on one little web page. First, there was a brief summary as to what Supplemental instruction is. Following this, an entire lengthy section that took up way too much space was dedicated to identifying various UVU courses that offer SI.
Below this, there was finally a banner that directed you to a link that simply sent you to a completely other PDF document with more essential information about Supplemental Instruction. It wasn’t even on the web page itself!
In with the New
The newly designed Supplemental Instruction website was created from the ground up to solve all of these previous problems. We wanted a site that didn't’ pack too much information all in one place, but also sufficiently represents all that SI has to offer.
The site is divided into 3 main pages. A Landing page with with all of the foundational and pertinent information about what SI is, and how it can benefit students to find academic success.
Second, there is a distinct page dedicated to looking up, and finding courses that offer Supplemental Instruction.
The third and last page on the site is a staff and faculty facing page designed to inform UVU faculty about SI, how to request SI support for their classes, and how to recommend and SI leader.
The site is divided into 3 main pages. A Landing page with with all of the foundational and pertinent information about what SI is, and how it can benefit students to find academic success.
Second, there is a distinct page dedicated to looking up, and finding courses that offer Supplemental Instruction.
The third and last page on the site is a staff and faculty facing page designed to inform UVU faculty about SI, how to request SI support for their classes, and how to recommend and SI leader.
Making it Work
After the design itself was complete, we handed the surface comps off to a developer. We met with the dev team once a week for 6 weeks to go over progress and monitor how the designs apply to the real world. The site is currently live and has fully replaced the previous single SI web page.
The process of publishing and integrating a new site is an extremely iterative one. The site is live now, but we are still making adjustments, running usability tests, gathering more information, and understanding what can be improved upon even further. The cycle continues!
Outcomes & Results
As the site is just very recently launched, we don’t yet have many tangible metrics to show how the new site and overhauled brand of SI has directly impacted the academic success of the students. We do however, know that our initial problem essentially been solved! SI now has it’s own home on the web, and it’s own brand identity that will help further establish it as it’s own distinct program. This will enhance marketing efforts and assuredly reach and inform many more individuals Supplemental Instruction.
