In 2020, COVID-19 forced higher education into sudden remote-first mode. Parsons needed to onboard hundreds of new students to a campus, city, institution, and academic systems they might never physically visit before the semester began. Traditional orientation — campus tours, in-person registration, face-to-face advising — had to be entirely reimagined as digital content.
The challenge was not just technical production but information architecture: how do you compress months of institutional knowledge into a series of videos that a nervous incoming student will actually watch — and remember — before their first class? The content spanned academic registration, financial aid, campus systems, IT setup, and program-specific requirements.
Audited every onboarding document, email, and FAQ page. Categorized by student journey stage (pre-arrival, first week, first month) and identified where video was the right medium versus a well-designed webpage or checklist. Reduced scope from 20+ topics to 12 focused videos, redirecting production to the highest-anxiety touchpoints: registration, financial aid portal, remote IT setup.
Wrote all scripts from scratch with a plain-language standard: no acronyms without explanation, maximum one action item per sentence. Added a continuing student review step — second-year students flagged confusing language, catching 15-20 jargon instances per video. Each script timed to under 3 minutes, with critical information in the first 60 seconds.
Built all motion graphics in After Effects using Parsons' brand system. Screen-recorded system walkthroughs composited with motion graphic callouts and cursor emphasis — not just screen recordings with voiceover. For conceptual videos, developed illustrated motion sequences that worked without live footage (no campus filming possible during COVID). All videos delivered with closed captions.
Delivered to Parsons' LMS in multiple resolutions with embedded closed captions. Produced 60-second email cuts (action-only, no context) for the onboarding email sequence, linking to full versions. Created a searchable video index page so students could find specific information without watching all 12 sequentially.
Pushed for a two-week content audit to map existing materials and identify where video was actually needed. Reduced scope from 20+ topics to 12 focused videos targeting highest-anxiety touchpoints. Result: focused suite with higher student engagement than previous PDF-based materials.
Second-year students reviewed scripts to flag institutional jargon invisible to administrators. Caught 15-20 jargon instances per video. Result: consistently rated 'easy to understand' in incoming class surveys.
Plain screen recordings with voiceover don't direct attention. Composited motion graphic callouts, cursor emphasis rings, and highlight overlays onto every recording. Added production time but dramatically reduced cognitive load for first-time system users. Result: IT support tickets for onboarded systems decreased in the first semester.
This project taught me the difference between information design and content production. A video that accurately contains all the right information is not the same as a video that helps a student feel confident and ready. The content audit and plain-language scripting — before any frame was rendered — determined whether the final product would actually work.
The hardest design work in communication projects is deciding what not to say, and structuring what remains in the order a first-time reader actually needs it — not the order convenient for the institution producing it.