Flexible, Data-Driven Pathways That Personalize Student Advising at Scale
- ClientThe New School
- IndustryGovernment & Education · Education
- ServicesCustomer Experience
- CapabilitiesExperience Design · Content analysis · Content strategy
How The New School made flexible learning permanent online
The New School needed a flexible, data-driven way to support an academic environment that evolves quickly—without sacrificing clarity, consistency, or ease of use for the people who rely on it. They were looking for an approach that could adapt to changing needs while staying grounded in reliable information and scalable structure.
In this case study, you’ll learn how we partnered with The New School to define the challenge, align on a practical strategy, and build pathways designed to flex over time. You’ll see how our work helped create a foundation for smarter decisions and more adaptable experiences across the organization.
Key Takeaways
Improved internal alignment across teams and stakeholders
Enabled more data-driven decision-making through clearer, more consistent information
Created flexible pathways that support varied user needs and evolving academic offerings
Increased stakeholder clarity and efficiency by simplifying choices and reducing ambiguity
Student and faculty legacy in action
TNS is built on a legacy comprised of past and current students and faculty. Leading with these individuals’ work establishes relatable, multifaceted examples of who someone can become by attending the school.
That focus helped shape a homepage strategy designed to move returning users from early consideration toward application—introducing the full range of individual schools, showcasing the variety of academic offerings, and delivering impactful student stories.
Homepage Strategy for Returning Users
We started with the homepage after discovering that most return users begin their sessions with direct entry on that screen. From there, we focused the narrative on three jobs that move visitors from early consideration to application: introduce the full range of individual schools, showcase the variety of academic offerings, and deliver impactful student stories.
That strategy created a clearer path into deeper exploration—helping people quickly understand what The New School offers and why it matters, while setting up a framework the team can continue to test and optimize over time.
Testing and Measurement for Adaptive Experiences
User testing across page variations helped validate clearer narratives and editorial strategies for key audiences—prospective students, faculty, parents, and influencers—so the experience could adapt to different contexts without losing coherence.
Building on The New School’s progressive design system, we introduced new engagement moments and paired them with a measurement dashboard and analytics report, giving the marketing team a way to continually optimize site efficacy as content and module order evolve with users’ needs.
Results and outcomes
The redesigned homepage system gave The New School a more flexible way to present programs, stories, and calls to action across audiences, with modular components that can be updated quickly as priorities shift. A dynamic design approach helped create clearer pathways into key content while maintaining a cohesive experience across pages and devices.
To support ongoing optimization, measurement was built into the work through a dashboard and analytics framework that makes performance easier to monitor and compare over time. With clearer visibility into engagement and pathway behavior, the team can test changes, learn what resonates, and iterate with confidence.
What We Did
Developed a flexible, data-driven framework to support evolving academic pathways across the institution
Built tools and processes to translate institutional data into actionable planning and decision-making
Delivered a scalable approach that enables ongoing iteration as programs, policies, and student needs change
Flexible, data-driven pathways for The New School
For The New School, we focused on creating flexible, data-driven pathways that support an academic innovator. The work centered on building a foundation that can adapt as needs evolve, while keeping decisions grounded in data. The result is a clearer, more responsive approach to shaping experiences over time.
Iteration turns early assumptions into clearer direction, and each cycle adds measurable insight into what’s working and what needs adjustment. By checking progress against real signals, teams can make decisions with greater confidence instead of relying on guesswork. That confidence supports steady refinement, keeping changes purposeful and aligned to evolving needs. Over time, this approach sharpens flexible pathways that can be tested, improved, and sustained.
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