Redesigning the NCSEAA K-12 Scholarship Experience
Introduction
For families navigating state-sponsored scholarship programs, finding the right information quickly can make all the difference. As interest in North Carolina’s Opportunity Scholarship and ESA+ programs expanded, the North Carolina State Education Assistance Authority (NCSEAA) knew it was time to modernize its K-12 website and deliver a better experience for the families and schools it serves.
Electric Kite partnered with NCSEAA to create a website that’s clear, intuitive, and built for the long haul, making it easier for users to find what they need and for the NCSEAA team to support them.
Our Role
- User Experience
- Web Creative
- Web Development
- Messaging & Content Development
- Analytics Implementation
The Client
A State Agency with a Vital Mission
The North Carolina State Education Assistance Authority (NCSEAA) administers state-funded K-12 scholarships for families and schools across North Carolina. Their goal is simple but powerful: to guide families through the scholarship process with clarity, support, and trust.
The Work
Web Design, Messaging Strategy and a New Visual Approach
We started by listening. Through stakeholder interviews, user surveys, and direct conversations with awarded families and school administrators, we mapped every point of friction and opportunity. Our research led to clear user personas, detailed journey maps, and a new site architecture built around how families actually search, learn, and apply for these helpful funds.
During the research phase, it became clear that NCSEAA needed more than just a new website; they needed a unified messaging strategy. While their mission was clear, their messaging lacked clarity and consistency across audiences. Parents, families, and school administrators each had different questions and needs, and the existing communications didn’t always meet them where they were.
As a state agency, NCSEAA also faced a challenge on developing a connection to its audience from a governmental service perspective. To address this, we led a Messaging Sprint, an agile, collaborative workshop series designed to surface insights and quickly turn them into actionable strategies. The result was a communications roadmap and a messaging framework that helped NCSEAA speak with more clarity, empathy, and authority across all channels.
We then brought that strategy to life on the new website, pairing our messaging work with a new visual identity developed by NCSEAA’s brand agency. Our role was to activate the visual system across the site and ensure it worked hand-in-hand with our new communications strategy. The result is a digital experience that’s intuitive at every turn — mobile-first, fully accessible, and organized around user needs, not internal structures. We built flexible page templates, wrote human-centered copy, and delivered a style guide to make sure NCSEAA could grow and adapt its site over time. Throughout, we kept accessibility at the top of our minds, hitting WCAG AA standards (and beyond in many areas).
We also set NCSEAA up with Google Analytics 4 and a custom Looker Studio dashboard, giving their team real-time visibility into user behavior and site performance.
The Results
Three months post-launch, the numbers tell a strong story. For the same time period year over year, the new site saw:
✅ 15% increase in sessions
✅ 23% increase in views
✅ 8% increase in organic traffic
✅ 4.6 M+ interactions
✅ Significant Drop in Call Center Support
Beyond the metrics, NCSEAA now has a website that feels supportive and trustworthy.
Conclusion
Together, we transformed NCSEAA’s digital presence, turning a complex process into a clearer, easier experience for thousands of North Carolina families. It’s a site that empowers users, builds trust, and grows with them, exactly the way it should.
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What Can We Do For You?
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