The challenge
Student Travel is one of Romania’s leading cultural exchange agencies, on the market since 1999, with 14 offices across the country and over 5,000 students enrolled each year. They approached us in October 2018 to redesign and restructure their website.
The problems were clear. The site offered 9 different programs, but the flagship Work and Travel USA — the one driving most of the revenue — wasn’t properly highlighted. The content focused heavily on logistics (documents, steps, requirements) while neglecting the experience and the “why” that actually attracts applicants. And the application process was a single intimidating form with 10+ fields, sending everything to one headquarters inbox where an employee had to manually forward each submission to the right city office.
Our approach
We started with in-person meetings at the client’s headquarters to understand the scope and existing branding, then moved through three phases: restructuring, design direction, and build.
The sitemap was reorganized to put Work and Travel USA front and center, while removing standalone pages that didn’t justify their existence and reintegrating that content throughout other pages. We offered the client two stylescapes — “Independent” (bold, solo adventure, self-discovery) and “Social” (groups, friendships, travel destinations, playful typography). They chose “Social” with small elements borrowed from “Independent,” giving us a strong reference point for every design decision going forward.
The work
Homepage and navigation. Restructured the navigation to surface important content immediately. The homepage shifted focus to the experience side of Work and Travel USA. After reading over 200 student testimonials, we selected three that best captured the recurring themes and built unique visual sections around them, pairing each with playful destination imagery — New York, Seattle, and the Grand Canyon.
Application process. Replaced the single intimidating form with a 4-step flow. Students enter their information progressively, and the system automatically routes submissions to the correct city office — eliminating the manual email forwarding that had been eating up admin time.
Job listings and calendar. Built a filterable jobs list where students can browse available positions by US state, and a job fairs calendar — both dynamically populated through a simple admin interface. Administrators enter details in the dashboard and they appear on the site automatically.
FAQ management. Developed a flexible FAQ system where the client can manage both sections and individual questions through the admin dashboard, with everything updating dynamically on the front end.
What we delivered
A website that leads with experience instead of paperwork. The Work and Travel USA program now occupies the position it deserves, the testimonial-driven homepage sections give prospective students the emotional push they need, and the streamlined application process reduced friction for both students and administrators. The dynamic admin tools for jobs, events, and FAQs mean the content team can keep the site current without touching any code.