UCF Online
A conversion-driven redesign of the online experience for one of the nation's largest universities — built to make 100+ programs findable, and to fit a system that's still in use today.
The Brief
UCF is one of the largest universities in the country, with one of the most ambitious online divisions in higher education — and a hard problem hiding in plain sight. UCF Online offered well over a hundred fully online degrees, certificates, and doctorates, but the sheer scale worked against it: a prospective student couldn't easily find the right program, understand it, and take the next step. I was brought in to fix the part of the funnel where ambition meets reality without breaking the broader UCF brand system it had to live inside.
The Approach
I ran a full audit first — where people landed, where they stalled, where they left. From there the work was information architecture and flow: how to organize a hundred-plus programs so a nurse, a veteran, and a career-changer each find their path in a few clicks; how to present each program in a way that's genuinely informative and built to convert; and how to do all of it inside the UCF design system rather than fighting it. Every decision came back to one question — what does the person on the other side of this page actually need to make a decision — and the conversion strategy followed from the answer, not the other way around.
The Build
A restructured site and program architecture: clear paths by degree level and area of interest, program pages designed to inform and to move people toward an application, and a conversion-minded flow stitched through the whole experience — all consistent with UCF's institutional brand. The system was built to scale to new programs and hold up long after launch.
The Outcome
The architecture and design system are still in use today, and UCF Online's trajectory since speaks for itself. The university has climbed from outside the top 15 to No. 6 in the nation for Best Online Bachelor's Programs in U.S. News & World Report — its highest ranking ever — now reaching thousands of fully online students across all 50 states and dozens of countries. UCF credits the rise to a "people-first, technology-driven approach." That's the whole idea: design the system around the person on the other side of the screen, and let it scale.
Scale was the enemy of clarity. The work was making the right program for each individual easy to find, and the next step easy to take.