Singapore University of Social Science
This project involved redesigning the web experience for SUSS.
2 weeks team project at General Assembly - User Experience Design Immersive Programme
My Responsibilities
UX Researcher - Wireframe / Interaction Designer
• Conduct a heuristic evaluation of SUSS's current web experience
• Conduct contextual inquiry and in-person interviews
• Turn 3 given persona's needs into accomplishable goals
• Design interface recommendations to increase usability
• Design mid fidelity wire frames interactive prototype to test new information architecture
and interface recommendations
What about SUSS?
It is a Singaporean University which mission is to provide lifelong education that equips learners to serve society, through an applied education anchored in disciplines with a strong social focus.
Challenge
Working professionals have limited time and energy, and can find it challenging to navigate and locate specific information on SUSS websites that have disorganised information & cluttered navigation.
Our Hypothesis
By building a university site that inspires and is easy to navigate, we will achieve
greater user satisfaction as they will be able to enjoy finding out more about the university in an organic manner, whilst easily locating their required information.
Solution
We will know this to be true when we see prospective students quickly arriving at key information points on the site (e.g. course details, childcare) and utilizing key call-to-action buttons (e.g. apply now).
Phase 1: Research
Our design had to meet the user goals represented by the 3 given personas, the goals of the school, and align its existing brand. Here the three Personas:
From a background research of the university goals we discovered that a large proportion of its student population are working adults. We decided that out of the 3 personas John would be the best one to represent our target user, anyway we ensured coverage for all personas.
To understand the actual SUSS website and its issues we’ve conducted a progressive research starting from heuristic evaluation and content inventory. Visibility of System Status resulted as 1 of the main challenges the user faces while looking for info in the website: information buried layers deep within the site, and loose easily track of his position in it.
Here the key issues compiled from the research
Next step: usability testing for current SUSS site was build on our target user John and resulted a challenging experience for our 3 testers, who found themselves lost in the website, failing or having difficult success in most of the tasks.
As part of information architecture process, we performed: content audit, a site map of the current site, card sorting, and tree testing. This process helped us to understand the current site structure and polish it in order to have a starting base for the the new website.
Our next goals were reworking the site map and simplify the flow while making sure that user flow and key issues were covered.
Key revisions included:
• Distinct information categories
• Simplified terminology
• Reduced the number of layers that users need to access information
New Proposed Sitemap for SUSS Website
Comparison new and current SUSS website flow for John
Phase 2: Design Solutions and Iterations
Sketching out wireframes and execute a mid fidelity prototype in Axure.
Here below the main screens we redesigned in order to simplify the navigation and cover all user's needs.
Homepage
Programmes
Course Page
Additional Implementations: Fees and Childcare
The main form of measurement used for usability testing was the amount of time taken on the current SUSS site, as well as qualitative feedback during the testing itself. In both cases we achieved satisfying results.
