Helping prospective students find the right course, faster
Client London Metropolitan University
Project Summary
London Met’s course pages carried enormous weight. Five pre-course pages alone accounted for over a third of all traffic into the courses section, led by postgraduate and undergraduate hubs with hundreds of thousands of views a year. But for pages this important, they made finding the right course harder than it should have been: a flat A–Z listing with no way to filter or compare, weak SEO, and accessibility gaps, all served to an audience that is 88% mobile.
The core problem wasn’t a shortage of visitors; it was that visitors struggled to navigate the breadth of courses on offer and get to a confident decision. The My Prospectus shortlisting tool existed but sat off on its own, disconnected from the pages where students were actually browsing. And London Met’s own research showed students wanted specific things to decide – career outcomes, course detail, entry requirements and finances, surfaced clearly, with personalisation that felt helpful rather than intrusive.
The goal was to make courses genuinely discoverable: modernise these pages into a digital prospectus that gives students the tools to search, explore, compare and shortlist. The ease of an e-commerce experience applied to choosing where to study.
The UX Design challenge
London Met’s course pages carried enormous weight. Five pre-course pages alone accounted for over a third of all traffic into the courses section, led by postgraduate and undergraduate hubs with hundreds of thousands of views a year. But for pages this important, they made finding the right course harder than it should have been: a flat A–Z listing with no way to filter or compare, weak SEO, and accessibility gaps, all served to an audience that is 88% mobile.
The core problem wasn’t a shortage of visitors; it was that visitors struggled to navigate the breadth of courses on offer and get to a confident decision. The My Prospectus shortlisting tool existed but sat off on its own, disconnected from the pages where students were actually browsing. And London Met’s own research showed students wanted specific things to decide, such as career opportunities, course detail, entry requirements and finances, surfaced clearly, with personalisation that felt helpful rather than intrusive.
The goal was to make courses genuinely discoverable: modernise these pages into a digital prospectus that gives students the tools to search, explore, compare and shortlist, bringing the ease of an ecommerce experience to choosing where to study
What we did
We ran a discovery workshop with London Met to align on goals, then rebuilt the experience around how students actually find and decide on a course.
To make courses discoverable, we built a new template system with a course finder, filters for start date, level, subject and location that let students narrow thousands of options to the handful that fit. A recommendation quiz guides students who don’t yet know what they want toward relevant courses, and a side-by-side comparison tool lets them weigh their options with confidence. Career outcomes lead each course block, and we structured content so the information students told us they cared about most is surfaced upfront rather than buried.
We reimagined My Prospectus as an “ecommerce wish list meets personalised prospectus,” woven into every course page instead of living as a separate tool. The old “shortlist” became a familiar heart/favourite icon, backed by a persistent Favourites bar that follows students site-wide, with one-tap sharing to WhatsApp, Telegram and social so they can bring family and friends into the decision. When students choose to save their shortlist by email, that flows cleanly into Microsoft Dynamics via Gecko Forms with a clear opt-in.
Everything was built mobile-first to WCAG 2.2 AA, within their existing Terminal Four CMS, with fast-loading media and full GA4 event tracking through GTM so the team can see how students engage.
The Results
UI overhaul more akin to E-commerce listing
Adding heart/favourite icons, a persistent Favourites bar, filterable product-style course cards, and portrait video pulled from Instagram and TikTok, bring an intuitive, modern, mobile-first feel to browsing courses. For an audience that shops, streams and scrolls on their phones, the redesign meets students where their expectations already are, lowering the friction between landing on a page and engaging with it.
Search, filter and compare courses
instead of scrolling an undifferentiated A–Z. The single biggest change to how the course catalogue is navigated. The recommendation quiz gives undecided students a guided route in, and the comparison tool supports a more confident final choice.
Shortlisting is now built into the browsing experience
Rather than hidden in a standalone tool, so far more students encounter it naturally, and the email-save and social-share features turn a private shortlist into both a lead for London Met and a shareable decision aid for students and their families.
“ What our team said…
London Met have a highly capable team, but are that rare combination of deep expertise and genuine openness to new ideas that ensures the best outcome. We love the challenges they bring us, and we always look forward to the next one
