roadmap
content 
strategy

The Need. The CaliforniaColleges.edu platform was in critical need of an overhaul. With over 100 content pages, materials, and supplementary supports, the platform required a more effective approach to enhance engagement, improve accessibility for all student groups, reduce textual load, and boost user metrics. This revamp aimed to streamline content presentation and make essential educational resources more user-friendly and impactful.

The Solution. The CaliforniaColleges.edu platform was in urgent need of an overhaul due to its extensive array of over 100 content pages, which included materials and supplementary supports. The platform required a more effective approach to boost engagement, enhance accessibility for all student groups, reduce textual load, and improve user metrics. To address these challenges, we developed a new content strategy that focused on several key areas. 

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The content strategy I developed involved identifying and sunsetting pages with redundant information to streamline content. We created supplementary materials designed to provide better onramps into lessons and enhance engagement. We were mindful of accessibility, ensuring that visuals were compatible with screen readers and accessible to all user groups. Additionally, we incorporated more student voice into the content. Our strategy included determining which pages needed enhancement due to being text-heavy, merging pages with overlapping content to reduce redundancy, and creating entirely new pages for materials not previously available on the platform. This comprehensive approach aimed to make the content more engaging, accessible, and effective for the 6 million students across California.

Robust Analysis and a Content Strategy Roadmap. To address the pressing need for a comprehensive overhaul of the CaliforniaColleges.edu platform, we embarked on an extensive user-research process. This involved interviewing 30 participants to deeply understand their interactions with the platform and gather insights into their needs and preferences. The interviews provided valuable qualitative data on user experiences, pain points, and expectations. 

Following the interviews, I drafted a detailed user-research report that identified key gaps in the existing content and functionality. This report served as a foundation for developing a content strategy tailored to address these gaps. The strategy outlined specific actions for pages that needed to be sunsetted due to redundancy, pages requiring enhancement to improve clarity and engagement, and pages to be merged to eliminate overlapping content.

In addition to user interviews, we employed a range of quantitative methods to refine our strategy. We utilized Google Analytics to track user behavior and engagement metrics, Net Promoter Score (NPS) surveys to gauge overall user satisfaction, and other relevant data sets to assess usability. This data helped us to understand how users interacted with the content, which areas needed improvement, and how we could better meet their needs.

The content strategy also incorporated visual supports such as multimedia elements and infographics to enhance accessibility and engagement. We carefully selected visuals that were compatible with screen readers and accessible to all user groups, ensuring that the platform met high standards of inclusivity.

Through this robust process of user research and data analysis, we developed a nuanced content strategy that not only addressed the immediate needs of the platform but also positioned it to better serve the 6 million students across California, aligning with legislative mandates and improving overall user experience.