The new LSA Transfer Student Center, which opened January 6, 2020 within the newly renovated LSA Building, is a collaborative effort involving recruitment, Newnan Advising Center, and other programs in undergraduate education across the University of Michigan campus. The center aims to provide a smooth transition into the university community for its students and connect them to all available resources needed to succeed at Michigan. Along with a dedicated space on campus, the center includes a comprehensive website created by LSA Technology Services’ Web Team in partnership with LSA Advancement, which officially launched on November 19, 2019.
Before the new website, information on transferring to LSA appeared on the main LSA website, under separate pages: Prospective Students and Current Students. Although helpful, the resources and information contained here were easily overlooked among all of the other content on those pages. It was determined that all of the information related to transfer students should be housed in one location that was also easy to remember—lsa.umich.edu/transfer.
The LSA Student Transfer Center’s website design, fueled by the LSA Advancement team, uses editable templates (previously used for UMMNH and LSA Technology Services) for a clean and more intuitive user experience. All of the previous content was moved and updated to reflect the LSA Student Transfer Center’s welcoming and helpful tone. New pages include Transfer Ambassadors (students who have gone through the process and can provide more insight into life as an LSA Transfer Student) and an event calendar for transfer-related workshops and sessions.
"We were very satisfied with the service provided [by LSA Technology Services and LSA Advancement]. The process they offered made it easy to offer our insights and to weigh in on their suggestions. They began with an exploratory process of other sites that we had never even considered, which led to their recommendation that the site be structured along the pathway that students take from being prospective students, through their application, and on to their success as an LSA student." - Michael Hartman
Redirects from the old transfer student information pages to the new website establish a strong Search Engine Optimization (SEO) presence in search results and ensures that users will get to the new site from previous URLs saved in their bookmarks. The LSA Technology Services Web Team is also tracking transfer-related search terms to discover new SEO opportunities to compete with search rankings from other colleges around the state and country.
The new website and dedicated physical space will help students’ transfer experiences run smoothly, allowing them to focus more on their academic pursuits and less on administrative tasks. "Since the site launched, we have seen an uptick in the number of prospective transfer students contacting us, even though the same information was contained on our previous site," commented Michael Hartman, Assistant Director, Transfer Initiatives and Partnerships.
LSA Transfer Student Center Home Page
The columned navigation and custom footer provides a more directive approach to finding relevant information. The banner images effectively represent the LSA community and the large buttons with on-hover animation were inspired by current LSA landing pages. Shades of blue and hints of maize from the LSA color palette were chosen to reinforce the Michigan brand.
