2018

Net Price Calculator

AGENCY

CLIENT

University of Dayton

MY ROLE

TEAM 

Anthony Robinson - Director of Digital
Hannah Dillon - Associate Creative Director
Erica Benamy - Interactive Designer
Casey O'Neil - Developer

PROBLEM STATEMENT

How might we showcase and promote University of Dayton's promise on being affordable to propsective undergraduate students?

View Net Price Calculator

BAckground

University of Dayton

The University of Dayton is a top-tier Roman Catholic institution located in Dayton, Ohio.  The university is a research institution with undergraduate and graduate programs.  160over90 recently completed a full brand strategy overhaul from developing a unique selling proposition to creating brand messaging pillars and designs.  In addition to the Net Price Calculator, I also contributed in the redesign of the full website.

Promising Affordability

A Net Price Calculator is used on higher education websites to calculate the cost of attendance.  The Net Price Calculator factors in financial aid, scholarships, and cost of tuition. Net Price Calculators are required for all colleges and universities in the United States.  There is a misconception from prospective students and parents that the University of Dayton is an expensive private university.  However, the university provides a lot of financial aid and scholarships to help with the cost of attending.  To solve this problem, we decided to focus on creating a functional and user friendly Net Price Calculator.  

RESEARCH

UX/UI Audit

We began by auditing the current College Board's Net Price Calculator. From our analysis we found that there is:

• Too much text on the main screen.
• A lot of required questions to answer and the tool is time consuming.
• No indicator of how many steps or how long it takes to get to the results.
• Visual design is generic and does not match University of Dayton's branding
• Hierarchy makes it difficult to read the results.

College Board's Net Price Calculator is the standard for many universities.

Research 

Competitive Analysis

• Users are able to quickly navigate through the experience to recieve results.
• Results page uses pie charts, graphs and big numbers to emphasize savings.
• Tool calculates in real time on the same page.
• Ability to choose a shorter or more in-depth version of the calculator.

Strategic Goals

How might we create a more user friendly, intuitive and results driven tool?

1.User-focused Information Architecture

Consolidating and condensing sections of content into specific categories will help reduce the number of steps a user takes to get results.

2.Simplifying & Streamlining

Eliminating any non-essential or redundant content and only make mandatory sections required.

3.Interactive Visuals

Creating interactive visuals and adding UX/UI elements such as a scroll experience, clear indicator of what task a user is on and minor animations will provide a holistic experience.

User Journey

Audience Navigation

We used our evaluations from the research and best practices to create a simplified user journey to show where different users would navigate to.

Instead of completing a tradition sitemap for this website, we deciced to create a flow chart to show how different sections overlap depending on the intended audience.  We quickly noticed that all students start off at the same point but then segment off based on needs.  Ultimately, all users will end up on the same results page at the end of the experience.

 UX Design

Wireframes

We focused on the user expereince and content strategy for the new Net Price Calculator.  The goals were to: provided more context and guidance through the multi-step process by adding more descriptions, clear CTAs, and clear visual hierarchy of information in regards to how much University of Dayton will cost.

Data

Outcomes

1. Completion rate of form increased with a significantly less drop off rate.  

2. 160over90 began to market customizable Net Price Calculators as a new feature to offered client.

Let's Chat

Phone: +01 732 789 5434
Email: tiffanysoohoo@gmail.com

© Tiffany Soohoo 2023
Product Designer & Strategist