Since 1867, WashU Law has equipped generations of students with knowledge and skills to ethically and effectively practice law and pursue justice.
Objective
Focused on enhancing its recruitment efforts, The Washington University School of Law asked Almanac to rethink how to build connections with a new generation of students. The new website needed to showcase the exciting experience of attending WU Law, provide options for learning about JD, MLS, LLM and unique dual degree options, course offerings, admissions and application requirements, and financial aid.
Strategy
Almanac developed a new website with a focused, brand-building message, an emphasis on the exploration of degrees and unique specializations, and a streamlined application process. Consolidation of many websites and CMS platforms and careful planning and integration with a new and complimentary intranet site ensured content stay focused on our primary users: prospective law school students.
People Believe in What They Help Create
This is a phrase often said at Almanac and we believe it! The first step toward a successful website is identifying the key stakeholders and engaging them as early as possible in the process. Almanac facilitated discussion groups with faculty, staff and current students. We conducted surveys around communication preferences and functional pain points, and explored competitor brands and digital experiences.
Visit the new website: law.wustl.edu
Insights
With the completion of our discovery sessions and a deep audit of the school’s over 50 existing digital properties, we were able to develop a series of recommendations that included consolidation of many disparate websites and a content strategy to guide the WashU Law team. A collaborative prototyping and design phase allowed the teams to evaluate various user journeys, audience messaging and interactive design directions.
Internal & External Connection
As with any large communication platform, over time, the WashU Law School website had become unfocused, cluttered with thousands of pages intended for all of its audiences—internal and external. Our research uncovered that students, faculty and staff were frustrated with the current intranet platform and often defaulted to putting internal-focused content on the public website. As a result of these findings, Almanac developed a new and complementary intranet site for the school. SSO authentication and a content sharing system between the two websites streamlines access and content administration, keeping each site focused on the intended audience.
““We were looking to overhaul our website completely, from top to bottom. Almanac did a terrific job of helping us to crystallize our needs and goals, and also developing a clear strategy to visually convey our story to the world. The end result is a vibrant and dynamic site that is rich in key content and easily navigable.”
Peggie Smith, Charles F. Nagel Professor of Employment and Labor Law, Washington University in St. Louis
