How Squiz Deliver Effective Course Finder Solutions to Improve User Experience and Access to Relevant Information
For most Universities and Higher Education Institutions, course finders are by far the most visited, and most important, sections of their websites. Potential students face a huge personal and financial commitment and require in-depth, accurate and relevant information on available courses, in order to make informed selections. Higher Education Institutions therefore need to maximise the usability and accuracy of their course information and ensure that relevant information is quick and easy to access for their website visitors and easy to maintain and update for their content editors.
Squiz have a large number of clients within the Education Sector and, through work with clients such as Brunel University and the University of Brighton, have created four flexible approaches to building and improving course finders and course search. These four approaches incorporate Squiz's full suite of complementary analysis and implementation services to ensure that the needs of our clients, and the requirements of their users, are met.
The Solution: Squiz Analysis and Implementation Services
At Squiz, we have been working with universities for over six years, helping them to understand their audiences and achieve their objectives through tailored web solutions. Squiz have the experience, knowledge and skills to help you to engage with your audience, improve their user experience and improve the findability of your course information. Our range of flexible analysis and implementation services can deliver a course finder that will satisfy your users and meet your business objectives.
Analysis Services
Squiz can help you in the analysis phase of your project, from user analysis, determining your business requirements, to information architecture, design and usability testing.
The key challenge during this phase is to understand your users. We work with our clients to find out who their users are, what information is important to them and how they want the information to be communicated; creating a clear picture of the best way to meet their needs.
In consultation with the client, Squiz will determine the business objectives for the course finder and, alongside analysis of the course information to be communicated, determine the most appropriate approach to delivering an effective solution.
Implementation
Once the specification for the course finder has been determined, and there is a clear picture of what needs to be built to meet your user and business requirements, the Implementation phase can begin.
Squiz specialises in providing the services necessary to implement your course finder from start to finish, including build planning, project management, design creative, design implementation, functional implementation, content migration, documentation, platform build, QA testing, go live support and training. These services can be tailored to your project, depending on its specific requirements.
Our solutions are built using our open source Content Management System, MySource Matrix and our Enterprise Search solution, Funnelback. Depending on your requirements, we will use one or both of these products to deliver your course finder solution.
About MySource Matrix CMS
MySource Matrix is a feature rich, enterprise class content management system, which is easy to use even for non-technical content editors and can integrate seamlessly with a great number of external systems. The CMS separates the content from the design, making it easy to serve information in different visual designs and ensuring that the solution is easy to maintain and update. MySource Matrix also includes 'Contexts' functionality, which makes it easy to specify different versions of pages and assets, for example to serve pages in a variety of different languages, depending on the location of the visitor. We can also use MySource Matrix to deliver mobile solutions to meet the growing need for mobile formatted web content.
Find out more about MySource Matrix
About Funnelback Search
Funnelback Search is a fast and accurate search solution, which can be used to retrieve information from a myriad of content repositories including websites, intranets and databases. The benefits and features of Funnelback Search are extensive. In relation to course search they include:
- Accurate search - Organisations such as The London School of Economics use Funnelback for fast and accurate search results.
- Related search - A potential student may initially be looking for a specific course which your institute does not offer. However, using related search based on the user's search query, other relevant courses and course information can be highlighted, which may also be of interest.
- Spelling Suggestions - When searching for information it is easy to misspell words. Funnelback can return suggestions and results for incorrectly spelled query terms.
- Abbreviations - Students may search for courses by their shorter form e.g. Mathematics vs. Maths. By ensuring abbreviated search terms bring back relevant results you can deliver accurate search results on a wider range of search terms.
- Reporting, Analytics and Alerts - Funnelback offers a selection of reports to monitor search usage and effectiveness and alerts can be set up to highlight spikes in search query terms and user activity. This information can be used to ensure that the user's requirements are being met and to adjust your information accordingly.
- Multilingual Capability - Funnelback can search across multiple languages.
Find out more about Funnelback Search
Course Finder Solution Approaches
Option 1 – Complete Integrated Solution
The first option is a completely integrated solution using MySource Matrix, Funnelback Search and the content repositories in which the course information is held. Funnelback is used to search the content repository, based on the user's query, to extract the relevant information into the MySource Matrix System. MySource Matrix then delivers the information to the user in the relevant design.
Funnelback can act as middle layer API between the CMS and the content repository. By using Funnelback in this way the University has an efficient and seamless method of pulling content from one system and displaying it in the CMS. This requires fewer resources to implement than a full integration project.
Alternatively, MySource Matrix can be fully integrated with your content repository. This allows content editors to easily update and maintain the information in Matrix using our user-friendly Easy Edit interface. Changes in the CMS will then be automatically replicated in the content repository.
Option 2 – MySource Matrix Integration
The second option integrates MySource Matrix with the content repository in which the course information is held. The integration gives MySource Matrix access to the information in the content repository and the OEM version of Funnelback Search (which is included in MySource Matrix) can then search the information for display to the end user via MySource Matrix. The University of Brighton Faculty of the Arts selected this option for their course finder.
Option 3 – Data Migration and MySource Matrix Integration
Dated course finder solutions often become unstable and unfit for purpose. In situations such as this, integrating with Funnelback Search and MySource Matrix is undesirable. The optimal solution in these cases is to migrate the data from the old system into MySource Matrix and then use Funnelback (either the OEM or the commercial version) to search and retrieve the relevant results for delivery to the end-user.
Option 4 – Funnelback Search Integration
A CMS may have already been selected to display course finder results. In this case, you can still take advantage of the benefits of Funnelback Search. If the course information is held within the existing CMS, Funnelback can be used to search the content via the website. If the course information is held in a separate repository, Funnelback can act as a middle level API to retrieve information from the content repository and pass it to the CMS for delivery to the end user. Using Funnelback in this way removes the need to integrate the CMS with the repository, saving time and resources.
Client Examples
The University of Westminster Course Finder
University of Brighton Faculty of Arts
Act Now
The importance of offering a fast, accurate and user-friendly course finder is undisputed. Along with the features and benefits of MySource Matrix and Funnelback Search, Squiz has the skills and experience to deliver a solution that meets the needs of the organisation and the requirements of the users. To find out more, get in touch with a member of our team
Published:
12 Jul 2010 12:06pm
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