Radford University
As part of a comprehensive web redesign, Radford took a deep dive into all of the enrollment aspects of their website and their Slate experience.
Nuts &
Bolts
Timeline
January 2023 – June 2024, with ongoing follow-on work.
Project Scope
- Enrollment-focused stakeholder interviews
- UX Research (usability tests, interviews, surveys)
- Persona development & journey mapping
- Slate portal page recommendations
- Enrollment content for Admissions, Financial Aid & Degree Programs
- Enrollment journey conversion tracking
- Enrollment pathway explorations
- Slate form design and embeds
- UX and content recommendations
- Analytics tracking and data studio set-up
CMS
ModernCampus
Site Size
About 500 pages in the first launch
By focusing their web strategy on the enrollment experience, Radford was able to highlight their superpower: cultivating the student, faculty and alumni relationships in their inclusive community.
Radford University is a top-ranked school offering a wide variety of degree programs for undergrads, graduates, online students and competency-based learners across two campuses. This strength was being diluted across multiple sites where prospective students were having different experiences. They needed their site to present “one Radford”, and guide students along one cohesive enrollment journey.
Over time, their website had lost focus of its primary purpose- to serve as a marketing channel to drive enrollment for prospective students and their families. They knew they wanted to approach their redesign through an enrollment lens, weaving enrollment priorities throughout the whole project. They turned to NewCity to conduct an in-depth discovery and audience research phase which helped pave a way forward through sweeping changes to their IA, content strategy and messaging.
The result of the enrollment work is a clear, simple path to enrollment for their various audiences, a student-focused site navigation, and reimagined content that:
- Makes degree programs easily accessible.
- Provides clear information about cost and affordability.
- Showcases Radford’s exceptional level of student support and care.
- Highlights the character of the school and helps students understand if they’d fit in there.
The Enrollment aspects of the project included:
- Multi-day onsite workshops, including enrollment-focused stakeholder interviews and student and parent journey-mapping to understand leading indicators in the admissions and enrollment journey. These insights were used to design pathways and create content that maps to the prospective student’s need based on where they are in their journey.
- A Slate workshop to clarify Slate opportunities and goals. Findings were used to help Radford’s Slate technicians improve Slate pathways, remove barriers to important Slate access points and deliver a seamless UX experience to and through Slate portal pages and forms.
- Audience research (student interviews, baseline usability tests, unmoderated usability tests and surveys) to understand prospective student’s top needs and goals when visiting Radford’s website. These findings were used to develop a new content strategy that supports enrollment outcomes.
- Enrollment funnel pathway explorations and analytics tracking designed to support enrollment conversions like:
- Submit an RFI
- Schedule a visit
- Apply
- On-site IA and content planning workshops with Admissions and Financial Aid to help create improved pages that clearly and simply answer questions like “Can I get in?”, “Can I afford it?” and “What do I need to do to get ready for school?”. We used exercises like Core Content Modeling to help teams think about all of their content as a connected experience to support enrollment and retention.
Slate Spotlight:
Radford’s enrollment journey was powered by Slate—but students were hitting roadblocks. The process felt fragmented, especially for those exploring online programs, with confusing navigation, outdated information, and multiple friction points leading to drop-offs.
Strategic Use of Slate for UX + Content Alignment
NewCity worked with Radford to clarify how Slate could better support their enrollment goals—then aligned it with the website’s UX, design, and architecture. Our work included:
Designing routing pages to guide students to the correct application based on program type
Auditing and updating admissions and financial aid content for clarity and accuracy
Redesigning Slate portal pages and forms to reflect Radford’s brand and content priorities
Defining audiences, goals, and next steps for each portal touchpoint
Faster Paths, Higher Conversions
By connecting Slate’s tools to serve the way students actually search and apply, we helped Radford deliver a more intuitive, accessible experience—boosting application completion rates and helping students move confidently from interest to enrollment.
Tailored Solutions,
Not Templates
These screenshots show how we connected Radford’s site with their Slate-powered portals to create a unified enrollment experience:
Visit landing page: Designed to guide prospective students to key actions—like scheduling a visit or attending an open house—with clear content and strong visual hierarchy.
Branded Slate portal pages: Styled with Radford’s headers, footers, and typography to feel like a natural extension of the main site.
Aligned content strategy: Page goals, audience needs, and next steps were defined up front—ensuring continuity from the website into Slate forms and event registrations.
Want to talk enrollment strategy?
Enrollment Services is led by Robynne Lofton whose career spans 26 years in enrollment management positions.
