At Sandstorm®, we build award-winning websites and technology solutions that attract prospective students and their families, guide the student journey, boost enrollment, and improve the overall user experience.
Recent Higher Education Case Studies
UX RESEARCH AND DESIGN
We've spoken to thousands of students and faculty and would love to hear from yours
Backed by 4,600 hours of in-depth user research, we know what students and faculty want, and what’s in their way. We plan, design, and build university websites that help prospective students, parents, alumnae and faculty find answers fast.
We map key tasks and remove friction at every step. That includes clear information architecture, consistent global navigation across colleges and schools, and intuitive search results. Our proven UX methodology gives us the opportunity to speak directly with your different user groups and turn those insights into UX personas, reimagined user journeys, and drive the direction of the wireframes.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
We help identify AI tools to drive engagement while reducing staff admin
We implement AI chat and conversational search trained on your content so students can get quick answers about programs, deadlines, aid, and campus life. Behavior‑based personalization surfaces relevant content by intent, while privacy and accessibility remain central to our approach. On the operations side, AI assists with taxonomy clean‑up, bulk tagging, instant alt tag content development and migration QA, which shortens timelines and improves content quality. We work closely with universities to carefully consider AI solutions that align with your needs including:
PERSONALIZATION
Personalization strategies to increase enrollment
Personalization is a way to increase engagement and enrollment. We can help identify the right personalization AI technology and create a personalization strategy that fits your needs, focusing on the data users expect you to know and highlight what can be personalized through content.
SEARCH
Technology solutions for a faster, smarter search
When a search does not work, you are the first to hear about it. Identifying the right search or AI technology like FUSE, Algolia or Coveo can help make site search easier, faster, and more accurate. Cleaning up or defining current taxonomy terms to create a robust search experience will improve accuracy, relevancy, and prioritization.
OPTIMIZATION
Analytics, SEO, and AIO impact reports
Search and AI are changing fast. According to Forbes, brands are seeing up to a 60% drop in organic traffic. Higher education institutions face extra challenges with limited budgets and a heavy reliance on organic search.
We define KPIs tied to enrollment and reputation, configure GA4 and Looker Studio, and provide dashboards for admissions and marketing. Our teams handle content audits, redirects, and structured migrations to protect SEO equity. We'll implement best practices for AIO (AI Optimization) including AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) and GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) to improve your exposure in AI results. We also train editors on writing for AI, the web, and accessibility.
ACCESSIBILITY
Accessibility is built into our process
Our team of IAAP-certified (CPACC) product owners, designers, and engineers work together to ensure every university website redesign is built with accessibility from the beginning. We provide hands-on accessibility training for content editors and their teams, as well as ongoing accessibility audits to keep your website in compliance.
