86%
ONBOARDING
−48%
WORKFLOW TIME
−44%
SUPPORT TICKETS
4.6/5
USER SAFTISFACTION
OVERVIEW
Secured a high-visibility university Student and Staff web portal project over 7 competing internal IT departments. Architected the strategic UX design and delivered a research-backed pitch to executive stakeholders.
Skills: UX Leadership, Product Strategy, UXR, Service Design, Rapid Prototyping, CSS.
The GOAL
To improve outcomes by bringing fragmented services into one coherent, task-first experience to reduce friction and reduce workflow time.
Operational Efficiency:
Engagement Momentum > To increase Onboarding, and for Students to complete profile personalisation within 48 hours of launch. Increase Daily Active Users(DAU), moving from a utility to a daily habit.
Consolidating Services: Create a single sign-in service.
To reduce Improving outcomes
Applying a User-Centred Design process to re-design and . In addition, improve user engagement by adding personalisation and real-time data content.
The team
Myself/UX Lead
The Head of IT Services, Web Manager/Product Owner and a Senior Developer
Department: The Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences (EPS).
THE PROBLEM
Feedback from an internal and central Survey indicated that the existing Staff and Student Portal was ineffective, and that the user experience unsatisfactory. Overall the system did not meet user needs and was essentially abandoned by users. Support requests in JIRA were high and admin were responding to high call numbers as the system was not providing functionality for students to manage their digital communications.
THE challenge
ReseaRch and insights
I conducted generative research within the faculty to understand and define the problem and gain insights to inform design.
Evaluated the existing portal system and conducted comparative analysis on gateway systems and investigated new functionality and similar information architecture.
I analysed and synthesised data using a Thematic Analysis. Insights - There were 3 distinct personas/users with different needs and work flows, which was the most crucial aspect to consider.
Multi-Persona Challenge - Student, Academics, Staff.
Identified the three user types and designed a service to serve vastly different audiences. Created user flows and
Navigation Taxonomy
Used an Information Triage to prioritise data and used Widgets on the Home pages to serve each audience. Designed a dashboard layout and colour scheme to suit the audience.
value proposition
Identifying Pain Creators and Pain Relievers
Value Proposition Canvas allowed me to consider opportunities for gains and understand the pains that my design fixes the problems. It helped with ideation and consider how and where to add value to the service/product.
Discovery
Card Sorting with expert users (Web Services Team)
Partnered with the Product Owner to plan and facilitate a workshop with expert users as they received the JIRA support tickets and knowledge on user pain points. Brain-stormed features and navigation and content ideas.
The challenges were that the group were technical support and became hyper focussed on multiple features that they thought users would like.
As the UX Design Lead, I guided them in the following ways:
1) Using the MoSCow prioritisation method to encourage them to reduce features and personalisation ideas. My concern was for 'Feature Bloat' and users would be overwhelmed with too many options.
2) Discussed Hicks Law helped the group to consider what features the users would benefit from, without increasing cognitive load.
Collectively, we narrowed the design to 5 features.
User Test and a simplified yet intuitive navigation system with personalisation on the dashboard for each Audience.
rapid prototyping -mvp
Development of system
I applied the all new responsive university CSS into the backend application and created CSS styles and implemented all visuals in the beta application. Collaborated with the Senior developer who created the functionality for widgets which were used on dashboard/landing pages.
Lean UX
Project management
As a team we worked in an Agile manner
usability testing and user testing
A/B Validation of designs
Partnered with the Product Owner to facilitate two user sessions with groups of 14 Students and 16 Staff members (6 academics and 10 Admin/HR/Marketing).
Conducted an informal interview to gain feedback on the user testing of the