brief
For nearly half a century, the National Film and Television School (NFTS) has developed some of Britain and the world’s top creative talent. It runs more than 30 MA, diploma and certificate courses – as well as numerous short courses – across a range of film, television and games disciplines. The school is recognised internationally as a model of excellence in specialist higher education and one of the world’s pre-eminent institutions in film and the moving image.
We partnered with the NFTS in 2018 with a technical and creative brief to overhaul their website and digital presence. We needed to find more visually-appealing ways to represent the brand, and to develop and clarify brand messaging. The NFTS were also keen to improve efficiency in managing course applications, and needed to integrate their website with a third-party database containing student data.
action
We began by designing new visuals for the NFTS, using bold video, imagery and colour to demonstrate the school’s creativity and innovation. We then ran workshops to get input from staff into the Drupal website development, creating sample wireframes and discussing how best to represent the brand.
During the website design, we simplified the NFTS messaging, focusing on the ‘search for courses’ function, which is what the majority of users are looking for. This was previously difficult to find within the site navigation, but is now prominently displayed on the homepage and in the side menu on every page.
We explored the school’s application process and considered the different routes applicants can take, creating a process flow for the many possible options. Previously students could apply online using a single application form, which then had to be manually inputted and processed by the NFTS administrative team. Now, we’ve enhanced and integrated systems, enabling online applications to be customisable for each course so that the relevant information can be collected and differing procedures followed. To maximise administrative efficiency and ease, all information is stored and recorded on the NFTS website. The applicant is notified at all stages of the application process, and it’s easy for staff to find and see all application data in one place, with minimal manual input needed. Now that administrative efficiency has been improved in this way, the NFTS is also able to run far more short courses, which is an important area of growth and income for the school.
As part of our ongoing partnership with NFTS, we recommended that cost savings could be made by changing the school’s payment and financial software. We found an option that not only integrates with the NFTS website but also has substantially lower ongoing fees. This has further improved the NFTS’s efficiency as it enables live altering of student fees/debts as soon as payments are made, which means transactions no longer have to be manually recorded and credited to a student’s account.
impact
Since the digital changes have been implemented:
- Average NFTS website session duration has increased by 34%
- NFTS website page visits have increased by 22%
- Conversions (applications submitted to NFTS courses) have increased by a massive 141%
We are now continuing to partner with NFTS, providing Drupal website support and SEO, as well as finding ongoing ways to promote the brand and maximise efficiency and income.
