Higher Education Reaches New Heights with Smarter Web Design

Higher education reaches the heights of web design.

The sole focus of HEP (Higher Education Publications) is to maintain the most current database of all the accredited schools, colleges and universities in the nation. That’s a tall order, especially when that database needs to list all current personnel, accreditations and major news stories for over 5,400 schools, 91,800 administrators and 22,600 accreditations. And it needs to be easily searchable, too. ACS web design to the rescue.

Used by hiring companies, marketers and journalists worldwide.

Essentially, anyone needing to inquire about an accredited school will be using this site. So will marketers wanting to push their goods to universities and journalists verifying information. HEP’s stellar reputation depends on their ability to main accurate records. So the web design needed to help people quickly find information on accredited institutions. HEP’s tagline is Authoritative, Timely, Accurate. It was our job to ensure that they could deliver on that brand promise.

Now about those web databases.

HEP’s current website contained a very robust database that efficiently organized information so that it could be pulled up in nanoseconds. They call it hedConnect. This database is the equivalent of the Higher Education Directory^® already published by HEP and contains all the same information. It is instantly searchable by subscribers and features 109 specific categories that allow users to drill down to exactly the information they need. Nothing else like it in the higher ed industry exists. Our job was to develop a front end website that would help promote this useful tool.

Getting subscribers.

To encourage visitors to subscribe to the database, we put the trial offer and subscription rates front and center, and highlighted the most popular package. This way no one has to dig around for information on how to access the database, and those familiar with the print directory can order and get right to searching.

All the news fit to post.

Another useful component of HEP’s website is the news section. This blog compiles news stories about accredited institutions from around the country. They are free to see without a subscription. And while they appear in date order, the news posts are searchable, offering a handy tool to journalists and others who want to read the latest stories on a particular school.

The web design doesn’t stop here.

We built the HEP site to be uber useful. In addition to the database, portal and news section, visitors can request quotes for data extracts, research accrediting bodies, view state education agencies and more. Our web design made the HEP the online resource for higher ed information.