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Introduction

In this resource, we equip educators, decision-makers, and evidence creators with the keys to unlock an enhanced website experience. Dive into practical insights that dismantle barriers to evidence access, facilitate seamless navigation, and offer personalized content. Explore the pages below to discover each facet of this comprehensive guide.

At a glance

  • Put an end to the intrusive personal information requests.
  • Embrace tailored access models designed to foster inclusivity across different districts
  • Enhance your website’s usability for all users, especially first-time visitors
  • Take control of your website’s user experience by implementing content customization and personalization features

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Removing Barriers to Evidence Access

Many districts across the US lack access to the appropriate evidence.1 The primary obstacles encountered by district leaders in accessing this information include demands for personal data, paywalls, and the need to subscribe to freemium services.

Reducing instances of personal information input and offering select districts alternative access models allows more diverse groups of users to access evidence. This resource offers a set of best practices for designing or redesigning your channels to improve accessibility. 

Evidence pertaining to the quality of instructional material can be difficult to access. This is particularly true for evidence that exists in academic journals. Our research revealed that the following two dimensions characterize hard-to-access evidence:3

Access Barriers

dollar

Request personal Information


  • Necessary information (e.g. e-mail)

  • Necessary and supplemental information (e.g. name, district and role)

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Cost of access


  • Free

  • Freemium

  • Paid

A

Request for personal Information

Many academic journals and commercial hubs require EdTech and Core Curriculum purchasers to submit personal information for accessing evidence.2

Example

Ineffective Personal Information Request

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  • 01 All the personal information demanded from the user is mandatory. 
  • 02 There is no indication on how information will be used
  • 03 There is no indication how they would receive the report.

Effective Personal Information Request

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  • 01 Only email is strictly required, other information is optional. 
  • 02 Explain the benefit to the user of providing additional information on all fields
  • 03 Clearly indicates how the user will receive the material.

Evidence creators should collect only necessary personal information and highlight the added value to the user for providing additional information. In an experiment, when the benefit of information input was made salient, the intention to access the resource increased by 120%.3

B

Cost of Access

Most sites hosting academic articles require users to possess institutional credentials for a library subscription or to purchase instant access for resources. Most evidence users do not have access to institutional subscriptions.2

Evidence creators and curators should start by analyzing their need to collect personal information and the need to monetize resource access.
This way, your organization can determine what personal information is strictly required to interact with users and identify the most suitable access model.

Access Models

Free

What format of evidence is preferred by users (e.g. paper, pdf, audio, video)

Freemium

What channel is the most appropriate for dissemination based on the audience (e.g. email)

Subscription

Whether there ?is an opportune time to disseminate evidence ?(e.g. start of the school year)

Example

Democratizing Access

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  • 01 Step 1- A banner informs the user about an alternative access model. Shows next steps and allows user to get more information
  • 02 Step 2 – Request key information for low-budget districts and acknowledge how that information will be used.
  • 03 Step 3 – Confirm successful data upload and acknowledge the give guidance on accessing the resource.

Evidence creators and curators should consider providing users from low-budget districts who are dedicated to evidence purchasing with free access to academic evidence.

Navigate with Confidence

Buyers often depend on organizational websites to discover resources related to and evidence pertaining to the quality of instructional materials. A recurring issue is that these websites pose challenges in terms of user-friendliness for those who are not well-versed in navigating them.1

One way to circumvent this barrier is to create website support features that proactively nudge users, especially first-time users, in the right direction. In this resource, we’ll review some simple site features that can maximize its usability. 

Tool 01

Implement a Navigation Tool

Another way to proactively support users is to implement a resource navigation tool that allows users to filter down resources and/or search for specific resources.

Example

Filters to Improve Navigation

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  • 01 Search key within the filtered materials
  • 02 Filters to remove inapplicable resources
  • 03 Category tags within each resource

Tool 02

Create a FAQs Page

FAQs or Frequently Asked Questions help users by proactively providing solutions to common challenges they may face in real time. However, badly-structured FAQs can leave evidence users more confused. Below are three qualities that maximize the impact of an FAQ page along with an example of their application.

FAQ pages are beneficial to both your organization and evidence users. Users don’t have to spend time contacting support, which frees up your organization’s human resources for other support.

Qualities to maximize FAQ Impact

user

Relatable

Questions are answering the most common doubts your audience is currently having.

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Easy to navigate

Questions organized by topic or intended audience and navigation between questions is easy.

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Multimodal

Supplement text with images, video, or audio exhibits

Group

Focused

Provide direct and concise response to question

Evidence creators and curators should start by characterizing their main audiences. A first-time visitor is unlikely to be familiar with your organization, the type of evidence it creates and where evidence can be found on your website. It thus is important to include some general information, as well as more specific details about the variety of resources.

Example

Effective FAQs Page

  • 01 Includes a highlighted section for the most common general questions
  • 02 Easy tonavigate between the different questions, that are organized by topics
  • 03 Visual aids can make the content more engaging and easier to understand.
  • 04 Direct and concise response to question

Identifying FAQ Content

To identify relevant content for the FAQ section on your website, consider undertaking the following activities with your stakeholders:

Leverage insights from customer support interactions, encompassing both normal inquiries and emails. Through a thorough review of logs and categorization of recurring questions, a concise and user-focused FAQ can be compiled. Prioritizing top questions and evaluating email inquiries will ensure the addressing of common concerns and the provision of valuable information to users, fostering a more efficient support experience.

Brainstorm with your stakeholders key questions that wil solve your main audience inquiries by following the next steps

  1. Draw up a list of the main audience(s) of your website and the challenges they typically face
  2. Consider focus groups with a wide variety of users to better understand their challenges
  3. Implement a feature that allows users to submit questions on your website (e.g. hotjar) . Using the feedback from the built-in question feature, the FAQ can be updated to better answer recurring questions.

Brainstorm with your stakeholders important things you need to communicate or clarify about your organization

  1. Draw up a list of the key terms that your organization uses and create simple, understandable definitions for those
  2. Conduct short interviews with employees to better define your organization’s mission and vision
  3. If applicable, run surveys with the support team to identify the most commonly asked questions and solutions
  4. Make sure that the FAQ comprehensively covers key terms, a mission & vision statement and most-commonly asked questions
Tool 03

Create clear Call-to-Actions (CTAs)

Evidence creators and curators can help users by implementing clear CTAs that highlight key service offerings. In general, effective CTAs should be briefly-worded questions (“Not sure where to start?”), verb statements (“Learn about X”) or sentiments (“I’m confused!”).

In addition, they should be supported by colors and graphics to provide a signal that they can and should be clicked on. You should not overpopulate your landing page with CTAs to minimize decision fatigue – use less than 5 CTAs for a ~12% conversion rate.

Example

Effective CTA’s

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  • 01 CTAs placed in the top-right, where users usually orient towards on a landing page
  • 02 Design and content prompts users to click
  • 03 “Not sure where to start” CTA for first time users

Customization and Personalization

Website customization refers to the integration of features on your site that allow visitors to select what content they want to be shown. Personalization, on the other hand, involves presenting unique content for website visitors based on their context, demographics and needs.

For many individuals, a personalized web experience has grown into an expectation rather than a nice-to-have. This resource offers insights into implementing customization & personalization to help users access the most relevant content in the most frictionless way.1

Operating a website requires technical skills and knowledge of multiple tools that help measure and track website performance. The primary objective in enhancing any website is to enhance the user experience.
A more favorable user experience results in increased engagement rates with the available resources and facilitates the creation of meaningful interactions between your organization and your target audience.

Below are three steps that can help you enhance user’s website experience: diagnosis, personalization, and customization:

01

Diagnosis of website performance

Understand the effectiveness of your platform towards your intended audience

Website performance gives a glimpse on how effective your platform is to your intended audience. Through understanding visitor metrics, you can work on improving the user experience on your site.4

Personalization Indicators are established tools and measurement methodologies that provide early signals as to whether or not users are struggling to find relevant content.

  1. User Flows

Allow for detailed analysis of how users interact with your platform. They provide insights into whether users are struggling to find relevant material. However, they can be more difficult to interpret and draw conclusions from.5

  1. Customer Engagement Score

Customer Engagement Score (CES) can enhance user flow analysis. Based on a questionnaire, it provides an indicator of whether or not users are struggling to find materials. If so, this provides a signal for personalization and customization.8

Personalization improves UX, which Improves website analytics as a result

02

Personalization

Personalization involves creating a unique and individualized experience for each user, improving engagement and satisfaction.

Personalization Strategies

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User Profiles

Collect and analyze user data to create profiles, understanding preferences, and behaviors.

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Content Recommendations

Offer personalized content suggestions based on user history and interests.

Dynamic Content

Customize website elements such as headlines, images, and calls-to-action based on user demographics or behavior.

Localization

Tailor content to specific regions or languages to enhance relevance for different audiences.

Example

Quizzes for Personalization

  • 01 During the website onboarding, use a quiz to be able to stratify users based on their work background and needs so as to provide them with the most relevant resources.
  • 02 Use their quiz responses to generate recommendations.

Without any personalization of content, evidence users may be shown resources that are irrelevant to their backgrounds & needs.  Users presented with irrelevant information may leave your site or even discontinue use. Through personalization we can suggest articles, courses, or features that align with their identified interests and expertise. This can greatly enhance user engagement and satisfaction.

03

Customization

Customization goes beyond personalization, allowing users to actively modify their experience based on their preferences.

Customization Strategies

User Preferences

Provide settings or options that allow users to adjust recommendations, content displayed, language and localization

Content Filters

Content filters to allow users to tailor their content consumption based on specific criteria such as date, category, or relevance.

Example

Filters for Customization

  • 01 Search key within the filtered materials
  • 02 Filters to remove inapplicable resources
  • 03 Category tags within each resource

Without the ability to filter unnecessary information, users may spend a long time trying to find what they are looking for and may feel overwhelmed by the multitude of resources available. Users presented with an array of unfiltered resources may quickly lose interest. By providing filters, users will be able to reduce time spent searching and increase time spent engaging with resources.

Tool Quiz

Please indicate whether each statement is True or False based on your knowledge of effective web diagnostics and analysis practices.

  1. Reducing instances of personal information input and offering select districts alternative access models allows for more diversity in users accessing evidence.

    a. False
    b. True

  2. The purpose of diagnosing your website’s performance is to be able to provide relevant information and resources to specific users depending on the selections users make on your site.

    a. False
    b. True

  3. Understanding visitor metrics allows you to work on enhancing the user experience on your site.

    a. False
    b. True

  4. Users presented with an array of unfiltered resources may gain more interest in the contents of your site than users presented with filters.

    a. False
    b. True

Tool Quiz – Answers

Please indicate whether each statement is True or False based on your knowledge of effective web diagnostics and analysis practices.

  1. Reducing instances of personal information input and offering select districts alternative access models allows for more diversity in users accessing evidence.

    a. False
    b. True ✔

  2. The purpose of diagnosing your website’s performance is to be able to provide relevant information and resources to specific users depending on the selections users make on your site.

    a. False ✔
    b. True

  3. Understanding visitor metrics allows you to work on enhancing the user experience on your site.

    a. False
    b. True ✔

  4. Users presented with an array of unfiltered resources may gain more interest in the contents of your site than users presented with filters.

    a. False ✔
    b. True

Summary

This comprehensive three-part resource equips evidence creators and curators with the tools to enhance website accessibility, user-friendliness, and personalization. Implementing these insights ensures educators and decision-makers can effortlessly access valuable resources and enjoy meaningful interactions on websites.

Removing Barriers sheds light on dismantling barriers to evidence access, emphasizing the importance of diverse access models.

Navigate with Confidence focuses on user-friendly navigation and intuitive features, highlighting the significance of proactive nudges and clear calls-to-action. 

In Customization & Personalization, the spotlight is on website customization and personalization, emphasizing a frictionless user experience.

Key Takeaways

  • Offer diverse access models, including free, freemium, and paid subscriptions.
  • Proactively nudge users with clear calls-to-action and FAQs.
  • Enhance user-friendliness with simple navigation tools and guidance
  • Implement website customization to allow users to choose preferred content.?
  • Embrace personalization to provide unique, context-specific content for a frictionless user experience.

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  • 1 The Decision Lab, Survey (2022).
  • 2 The Decision Lab (2022).
  • 3 The Decision Lab, Choice Experiment (June 2022).
  • 1 The Decision Lab, Survey (2022).
  • 2 The Decision Lab (2022).
  • 3 The Decision Lab, Choice Experiment (June 2022).