Working closely with over 50 higher ed institutions for the past 20+ years, we understand their users and their goals, specifically prospective students and the desire for them to apply. When we have the chance to speak with students, we find time and again that the program offerings at a given school are one of the most important pieces of information they want to find. Before a student applies, they need to know if the school even offers a program that will guide them to their future career.

According to the RNL 2025 E-Expectations® Trend Report, high schoolers labeled academic majors/programs lists or course catalogs as the most helpful information on a college or university website. The same report also notes the biggest frustration these users flagged was difficulty finding information about programs.

If a school wants to serve its prospective students, it should focus on the path to academic programs, and that’s almost always through a program finder.

More Than a List

The program finder is one of the most important interaction points for prospective students on a college website. It can either connect users to their future program, teachers, and courses, or turn them away. We have conducted user interviews where students failed to find their desired program, despite the school offering it. Depending on your approach, your program finder can reflect the identity of your school by showcasing the plethora of options. For example, even if a student doesn’t want to major in acting, the existence of the program communicates an arts culture on campus they could explore.

Program finders should align with how your users search for programs and be supported by the program content available. The tool could allow for searching, filtering, reordering, and browsing. Talk to your users and see how they want to find the content, and build a system that supports them.

Turn Your Program Finder Into a Discovery Tool

Help prospective students learn about your institution and connect them to the information they want by creating a tool that goes beyond simply listing your academic offerings.

  • Offer more than an alphabetical list. While users will understand the alphabetical listing, it can be hard to browse and requires them to know the exact program name. Integrate high-level information about the program into the finder to encourage exploration and showcase your programs from the start.
  • Allow filtering to help narrow users to their focus. Some of the most common filters are area of study, program type, format, frequency, and location. If someone is looking for graduate degrees, don’t make them sort through undergraduate programs that don’t apply to them.
  • Streamline program names. While a program name might make sense internally, it can be like a secret code to prospective students. If you can, use terms familiar to users in the program finder that will help them quickly understand what the program is and why they may choose it.

Using Structured Content to Create a Better User Experience – A Case Study

Our client wanted to improve their finder after we found users couldn’t easily find what programs were available during user testing. We collaborated on multiple revisions of the finder, building in different filtering options, list views, and internal logic for how the finder worked.

During the process, we realized we had to rework the program pages to better incorporate information about the program. We restructured the pages at a technical level to build in information such as what campus the program was on, if the program was online or in-person, type of degree, and more. While that information had been on the page, it wasn’t built into the page’s structure, so the program finder wasn’t able to surface it to users to help them find what they’re looking for. If a user wanted to see all master’s degrees, they would have had to browse the long list. The new experience created a filter that empowered the users to search for what they wanted, how they wanted.

We streamlined the program content, making it more consistent for users browsing between programs. We rebuilt the program finder to showcase this program information directly to users. We addressed the users’ pain points and created an experience that better showcases the academic offerings at this institution.

The Takeaway

Creating a tool that allows students to explore your academic offerings is more than just good user experience—it’s a critical part of the recruitment process. Talk to your users and form a plan to evolve your program finder. It’s the most effective way to showcase your institution and guide students to their future.