Digital Wave

For prospective students, the cost of attending college is a top deciding factor in where they choose to enroll.

I spent the first 12 years of my professional career as an elementary educator, teaching reading to third and fourth graders. Today, I am a content strategist for Digital Wave. One of my primary projects involves writing eLearning content for active military service members. When I first pivoted to this role, I thought to myself: How different can it really be? Writing and delivering a lesson plan for eight-year-olds can’t be that different from designing content for adults in the military.

As more people turn to AI tools for everyday solutions and these models change how we find information online, it is increasingly important that websites are built in ways that both people and machines can understand. Did you know that AI reads websites a lot like a screen reader?

Some of the best lessons I’ve learned about client communication have come from parenting my four-year-old daughter. She is particular, expressive, creative, and not always easy to decode. She has strong opinions, a fast-moving imagination, and a very clear sense of when something does not match what she had in mind. Over the years, I’ve noticed that her requests tend to follow one or more of these three patterns: She changes her mind after making her initial request.

I’ve been told that my happiness is complicated. I frequently want two mutually exclusive things. Case in point: I want a car that gets great gas mileage (or is electric even) and can tow a 13,000-pound trailer. Unfortunately for me, that’s just not the way the world works. In my role as a technical consultant for my clients, it becomes one of my responsibilities to help them evaluate such decisions in their projects.

The college website has been the focal point of admissions for more than 20 years. In that time, sites have grown, user habits have shifted, and the way colleges market themselves online has changed completely. As page numbers increase, there are whole sections that don’t get touched to make sure they still fit the vision. That gap has a name: content debt. Information is constantly added and updated, and without a process to compare what’s new with what’s old, content slips through the cracks.

Graham Lewis of Hannon Hill recently highlighted a critical truth about higher education websites: “A full redesign every 3–5 years won’t fix stale or inconsistent content. Teams that win are the ones that can update quickly, safely, and at scale.” He is exactly right. A shiny new homepage won’t fix a broken foundation. Tackling your content debt and establishing a strong governance practice is how you actually win.

Higher education is under unprecedented pressure. With the enrollment cliff here, institutions are forced to adapt to reduce costs while maintaining program quality. Recent closure announcements — like Hampshire College and Anna Maria College planning for 2026 — only add to the uncertainty. Some institutions, however, are choosing a different path: mergers. Done right, mergers expand capacity, strengthen market position, and create long-term stability.

We recently wrapped an intensive discovery and research project with Loyola University Chicago, led by our very own User Research Director, Lamar Goodenough, and Senior UX and Accessibility Strategist, Heather Maupin. This project aimed at diagnosing the friction points within their digital ecosystem. Our mission wasn’t just to fix a site, but to conduct a deep-dive investigation into the actual behaviors, frustrations, and goals of their prospective students.

Stories all share the same fundamental elements. They follow a narrative structure that makes it easier for readers to consume. In other words, a predictable format that doesn’t overload the audience. It’s in the details of the setting, the characters, and the plot that a story becomes unique and unforgettable. The better crafted those details are, the more they stand out. Higher education websites use this same sort of foundation.