Research Methodology

Research behind the Playbook

The source material for this playbook includes a range of quantitative and qualitative audience research materials we have compiled over recent years.

Some of it is customized to IU audiences, based on usability and market research conducted with our own students, faculty, and staff. And some is informed by more general user research on higher education audiences across institutions.

Many of the included artifacts, exercises, and studies were conducted in-house by IU subject matter experts in user experience or marketing communications, while others are the result of collaborative work with outside agencies who specialize in digital content strategy or higher education user research.

This Content Playbook website was designed to make these insights available for all IU web communicators to use in their web communications. See how they’ve been applied to IU’s content strategy in the pages of the Playbook.

The following research reports are actively shaping the university's content, marketing, and web and digital strategies. To access specific reports, please reach out to IU’s content strategy team via email or contact form.

All-IU Research

• User journey maps (coming soon)
  Maps of the enrollment journey for undergraduate and graduate students and their families.
• IU search trends
  Analysis of online search traffic for IU-branded terms, nursing, and business.
• Information architecture analysis
  Analysis of the structure of IU’s sites, user paths through content, and wayfinding and orientation signals.
• Top tasks analysis
  Research into the top tasks key audiences are trying to accomplish. Audiences include current and prospective students, current and prospective faculty and staff, alumni, and community members.
• Admissions audience research report
  Summary of audience research.
• Audience research report
  Research conducted during the development of recent brand positioning.
• Campus personas (coming soon)
  IU-created student personas