2. My Role
UX Designer &
Content Strategist
Company Confidential
Timeline
3 Weeks
User Centered Design Methods Applied:
Team
1 UX Designer,
1 Digital Producer,
1 Visual Designer Client
Western
International
University
Understanding
west.edu’s!
User Experience
& Business Goals
User Research!
Persona
Heuristic
Analysis
& Market
Research
Feature Ideation
Brainstorming
Visual Designing,!
Prototyping
Sketching &
Wireframing
Internal & !
Client Reviews
4. Demonstrate What Makes You Different
What we lead with
What we should lead with
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5. Usability & Navigation
Consider moving
Live Chat to top vs
center
Revise color to have
greater stand out
Could recognize site
visit history to recall
‘no, thank you’ action
by user.
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7. Usability & Navigation
Make CTAs more
clear, less vague
Have consistent CTAs
for same content
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8. Usability & Navigation
Make mobile-friendly
Stack & allow for
progressive disclosure,
per best practices
Allow user to self-select
method of contact, or
revise wording
Scroll
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10. Client’s Ask- User Experience & Business Goals
Mission Statement- “Introduce a brand personality through the website & improve engagement”
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Give the brand a new personality so that users regard the
brand of high value.
Change the user’s notion of- “Western International
University offers degrees at a lower price compared to other
universities, that might suggest that I am compromising on
quality education.”
Have users engaged through the website by providing
them the right content at the right time and in the right
context and increase leads by 50%.
1 Provide a New Brand Perception
Across The Website
2 Re-purpose the course fee structure
and degree quality structure
3 Engage Users on a Continuous Basis
11. Design Thinking!
Process
1. Brainstorming, sketching and whiteboarding
2. Designing using Google analytics data
3. Content preview - ‘Show and Tell’
4. Mobile User Experience
Company Confidential
14. Different Users, Different Needs
Prospective
Students
Needs!
- Cost!
- Reputation!
- Time!
- Level of effort!
- Benefits!
- Examples of success!
- What it’s like/share
tools!
- Employment opps!
- Program information!
- Support!
- Upcoming events!
- Professor info!
Company Confidential
Registered
Students
Existing
Students Alumni Faculty &
Staff Influencers
Needs!
- Program details!
- Next steps!
- Authenticated login!
- Support
- Reputation/share
tools!
- Cost!
- Loans!
- Scholarships!
- Course information!
- Resources!
- Student services!
- Upcoming events!
Needs!
- Program details!
- School updates!
- Authenticated login!
- Support
- Reputation/share
tools!
- Course information!
- Resources!
- Graduation
information!
- Social/engagement!
- Alum contact info!
- Upcoming events!
Needs!
- New course
additions!
- Alumni network!
- Alumni benefits/Re-registration
!
- School updates!
- Authenticated login!
- Support
- Reputation/share
tools!
- Resources!
- Social/engagement!
- Upcoming events!
Needs!
- Authenticated login!
- Add/update course
information!
- Network info!
- School updates!
- Support
- Reputation/share
tools!
- Resources!
- Social/engagement!
- Upcoming events!
Needs!
- Reputation!
- Brand!
- Rankings!
- News!
- Updates!
- New course
details!
- Network info!
- Share tools/Social!
- Resources!
- Upcoming events!
15. User Interviewing Questions
1. Is it easy to navigate?
2. Does the look/feel, overall site appeal to you?
3. What elements caught your eye?
4. Is there anything you feel is missing?
5. Does the site allow you to reach out to get your questions answered?
6. Would you consider this school if you were going back for a secondary degree?
7. Any additional comments/themes?
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18. Industry Best Practices
-http://myopencourses.com/
Company Confidential
-https://www.udacity.com/ -https://www.udemy.com/
- Homepage (and/or first content tile) leads with the brand’s point of difference clearly and upfront !
- Longer scroll page paradigm
19. Industry Best Practices
-https://www.udacity.com/
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-https://www.udacity.com/
- Tiles focus on conveying one piece of information at a time!
- Enough breathing room between the various content blocks!
- Shows and tells small snippets of content for continued engagement, and content ‘flow’
20. Industry Best Practices
-https://www.udacity.com/courses#!/all
Company Confidential
-https://www.udemy.com/
- Provides useful ‘bite-sized’ information on courses before having to dive into a deeper section!
- Allows prospects to make a soft comparison between different courses!
- Course details are easy to skim through based on summary information
21. Current Site’s Heuristic Analysis
Company Confidential
Presented the heuristic
evaluation to the internal
team & the current site
problems, improvements and
what is the competition is
better at.
22. Whiteboarding, Sketching, Market Analysis &
The UX Re-design Guidelines
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Strategized the
re-design guidelines.
Sketching the re-design
Market research.
ideas and
experiences
25. Google Analytics Data That Lead to the
Re-arrangement of Home Page Tiles
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-Top Page Views !
- Start Smart/Try West!
- Online Degree Programs!
- Request Information!
- Affordability and Tuition
Comparison!
- Individual Program Pages!
- Why West!
- Live Chat
- We re-arranged these content nuggets logically per user’s engagement and the result is
the homepage tiles as you see it currently (West’s Unique Value Proposition -> Try West/Start Smart ->
Online Degree Programs -> Affordability/Tuition Comparison)
27. Navigation: Long Scrolling Page & Sticky Nav
"The mobile revolution dramatically changed the way we consume content. With people increasingly using
Smartphones and Tablets to browse the web, websites are constantly adapting themselves to mobile browsing,
which is, inevitably, vertical. Long scroll helps us prioritize different user needs within a vertical scroll"
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- Long Scroll Paradigm: “Is it easier for our target audience to scroll through your content or click
through it? This will help you figure out whether long scrolling is right for you.”!
- With increasing mobile visits, we got our mobile users back covered!
!
!
!
- A single-page view invites people to read for interest and not for need in an easier to digest way!
!
- Sticky Nav: Its easier to navigate a long scrolling page with a sticky nag!
- Also sticky navs are mobile friendly and thus help for mobile optimized websites!
!
!
!
!
29. Content Preview: ‘Show and Tell’ the Content Within the Tiles
- Tiles focus on conveying one piece of information at a time!
- Provides a sneak peek of useful information before having to commit reading to an entire content
page!
- Helps for better page ranking and better SEO
Company Confidential
30. Content Preview: ‘Show and Tell’ the Content Within the Tiles
Company Confidential
- Homepage Tile - Program General Page
- Program Detailed Page
- Provides a summary of degree options before PDF download!
- Gradually introduces the degrees by highlighting the ‘What’s in it for me?’ content!
- Opportunity to explore course/credit info in unique, potentially visual way!
- Provides useful ‘bite-sized’ information on courses before having to dive into a deeper section!
- Allows prospects to make a soft comparison between different courses!
- Course details are easy to skim through based on summary information
31. Mobile User Experience
Company Confidential
- Design for partial attention and interruption: !
- A good design will accommodate these interruptions by including shortcuts
that allow for simple and efficient multitasking. !
- Kept menus short and concise !
- Made it easy to go to homepage (‘Hamburger Navigation’)!
- Made site search more visible !
- Point to priority information: !
- Kept calls-to-action front and center!
- Maintained existing navigation bar (Programs, Why West & Affordability) for
quick page navigation !
- Avoid or limit free-text entry whenever possible!
- We removed ‘Live Chat’ from mobile since its designed towards desktop usage
and instead highlighted click to call and general RFI!
- Share Pertinent Information Quickly!
- Summarizing degree summary more prominently
- http://www.pragmaticmarketing.com/resources/the-4-mindsets-of-mobile-product-
design
- http://www.nngroup.com/articles/killing-global-navigation-one-trend-avoid/
- http://www.affino.com/blogs/my-blog--stefan/web-design-in-2013-means-hamburgers-
960-grids-and-flexible-responsive-frameworks
- Google mobile research whitepaper: Multi-Screen-Moblie-
Whitepaper_Research Studies
- Homepage
- Program General Page
- Homepage
