The challenge
For prospective students, open days are a crucial moment. But 2020 and in-person events were not the best combination. Due to the coronavirus, universities were forced to organise everything online.
The University of Amsterdam (UvA) wanted to know how best to facilitate online open days and how to turn them into a permanent tool – one that could help students choose their degree programme all year round. And, not unimportantly, it had to happen quickly, as the new academic year was just around the corner.
The solution
We jumped on board and learnt all about the UvA and the world of prospective students. From there, we designed the online open day in just a few weeks; a place where students can experience the UvA all year round – from the comfort of their own homes.
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A design sprint
The University of Amsterdam (UvA) was in a hurry. When they decided to organise their open days online, they only had a few months left. What’s more, every faculty at the UvA has its own marketing and content team with its own wishes and needs.
Little time, many stakeholders – this complexity called for a design sprint.
‘Putting all our information online is quite a challenge; it’s important, complex and involves a lot of people within the UvA. A design sprint was a brilliant way to come up with great ideas in a short space of time. The end result has broad internal support – because we really did it together.’
A design sprint is a streamlined process for solving complex problems in just one week. You start with a challenge and work your way through a host of ideas and sketches. You then select your favourite ideas, create prototypes of them, and finally test the solution with your target audience.
Ideally, you’ll have a dedicated space for your design sprint where you can work with the whole team for a week. For the UvA, we ran a hybrid design sprint – partly online, partly offline – due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The UvA’s online open day
Enough about the process. Time to talk about the results of the sprint. To give you an idea of what the online open day was like, we’ll highlight a few of our favourite elements.
A warm welcome
At open days, visitors are usually welcomed by students from the faculty. During the sprint, we learnt that this warm welcome is very important to prospective students. That is why we decided to bring this online using avatars. Each avatar represents a Master’s, Bachelor’s or international student.
As well as offering a warm welcome, the avatars act as online guides. They answer questions and provide information about the UvA and its degree programmes.
‘Current students know exactly what I’m about to experience, so they’re the perfect people to tell me what to expect from the study.’
A landing page with clear entry points
The open house landing page is at the heart of the concept. It has three main entry points.
These three entry points didn’t just come out of the blue: during the sprint, we discovered that these three factors are the main reasons why prospective students attend an open day.
Discover the UvA and the city of Amsterdam on an interactive map
Prospective students want to get a feel for the city, the university, the faculty and the various degree programmes on offer. It’s about the whole context, not just the degree programme itself. That’s why we’ve designed an interactive map on which prospective students can explore the various UvA locations and the city of Amsterdam. 360-degree photos and videos provide a realistic picture of the surroundings in and around the UvA.
‘Students often come from far away, so it’s nice to see where the university is and what there is to do in the surrounding area.’
Discover degree programmes as if you were walking through the university
The range of programmes on offer at the UvA is vast – which can be overwhelming. And the names of all the degree programmes can sound vague to prospective students. That’s why we’ve chosen to display each degree programme with an image – one that clarifies what the programme is about and makes it easier to browse.
‘The photos are brilliant; they make it much clearer straight away.’
Each degree programme links to a details page. The aim of this page is to inspire visitors with authentic content. ‘Authentic’ because that is one of the reasons why prospective students attend open days. They want to ask current students about their experiences so that they can form a realistic picture. Videos featuring students, lectures, live Q&A sessions (with students and lecturers) and (live) student vlogs on the detailed pages all contribute to this.
Find inspiration during our themed weeks
Through these themed weeks, we inspire students who are still exploring their options. We share content, such as articles by alumni, videos on the topic and, of course, the degree programmes that fall within the theme. This makes it easy for visitors to discover interesting degree programmes that may not have been on their radar before.
A permanent open day
From the outset, the UvA’s intention was to make the open day a permanent fixture. They wanted to create something that would still be of value to prospective students after the pandemic – something that would help people discover studies online, wherever and whenever they wanted.
Together with the UvA, we managed to achieve this in just a few weeks. Now, students can choose a degree programme from the comfort of their own homes, all year round.
Got a complex design challenge too? We’d love that!
Nils van den Broek — Founder
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