ACIS is a travel company that focuses on providing students opportunities to study abroad. As part of their website, they provide students and teachers with methods of finding information to select the right program for them, as well as manage their account regarding payment and status of their trip. Their site circa 2018 had a mishmash of pages that were constructed out of custom blocks, with nothing appearing consistent from section to section. Additionally, they were trying to target specific audiences of users, Teachers, Parents, and Students, but finding the information relevant for each user was not an easy task, and the copy was not written with each user in mind.
Finally, the My Account section of the site, where Students and Teachers managed their trips, was in desperate need of an overhaul, given that it did not align with the main marketing site thematically and the user experience caused issues.
So we needed to come up with a cohesive new UX and design system that brought the marketing site inline with modern travel sites, while appropriately guiding the different types of users to the information relevant to them, and building a custom system for users to manage their accounts and integrate with ACIS's existing database.
The result involved creating a color coding system for each user type and adapting templates and copy for each one, so that the user experiences were similar, but had the appropriate information for each group. This allowed copywriters to tune the messaging for the right people, and not overload certain users with unnecessary and redundant information. We also updated their system for filtering and searching for trips by taking some helpful tips from other travel sites like Kayak and Southwest. Each trip was given an updated and dynamic brochure page, which allowed the data that was coming from the existing database to not need to be so finely customized on the front end, freeing up time for the marketing team to focus on the customers rather than the website itself.
The My Account section received a facelift, providing relevant information to Students and Teachers, while focusing on making the user experience work across all screen sizes (not just desktop), especially given that most of the younger users would be accessing the site from their phones.
The final product represents a journey in itself from where ACIS had been and where they wanted to be. Given that they cater to Parents, Students, and Teachers, they had struggled with duplicate content and confusion about what content was for who. The color coding combined with the updated wayfinding to guide these users to where they need to go was a great help. But really, the highlight of the redesign was getting to leverage their large library of photos and videos taken from across the globe. Being able to see where you could be studying was a highlight of the new site, and something we made sure to incorporate at every level.
