BACKGROUND
California State Polytechnic University (known as Cal Poly Pomona) is a polytechnic university located in the Los Angeles Metro area. The College of Business Administration (CBA) is one of the nine colleges that make up Cal Poly Pomona. The university adopted new branding in 2018 and the CBA saw this as an opportunity to upgrade their website. Aside from just incorporating the new branding but also to edit their content and enhance user experience. The site is built with Cascade and is managed by the university IT department. I was brought in on contract to explore some of the options around upgrading the site.
THE OBJECTIVE
The Objective of this project was to update the College of Business Administration (CBA) at Cal Poly Pomona’s website to incorporate new branding and to enhance user experience.
THE APPROACH
I proposed a 4 phase approach: 1. Research 2. Design/Propose 3. Implement/Build 4. Test/Launch.
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Secondary Research
Analyze existing site, review similar sites for competitive analysis. Extract industry standard features, best practices, and information architecture strategies. Review analytic reports (Google Analytics, etc.) or any other data available for current site to determine traffic and page visits. User Interviews Schedule and conduct user interviews with a minimum of 5 users. Summarize research findings to create the foundation for phase 2
Design Deliverables: Competitive Analysis, Secondary research summary, User interview summaries, Research summary
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Analyze Research findings Use empathy map and other analytic tools to uncover user needs
Feature Roadmap Based on competitive analysis, design goals and industry standard features
Sitemap Visual document that shows site Information Architecture
User Interface and Branding Apply university branding standards Create Navigation system, buttons, icons, other graphics as needed
Wireframes/mockups Mockups of visuals of the website. Wireframes for information architecture and site functionality.
Prototype (optional) Create a low-fidelity prototype that can be tested by select users before proceeding to Phase 3
Deliverables: Site map, User flow diagram, personas, feature roadmap, responsive wireframes/mockups, UI kit
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Implement site design Using the design layouts from Phase 2, build the site within the existing Cal Poly Cascade framework. Enter existing and/or updated information. Create new navigation system, and implement new information architecture. Adhere to CPP branding and web protocals.
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Usability Testing Recruit users to test site and report any errors or omissions before launch
Iterate Make high priority edits/changes discovered in usability testing
Launch publish site for public
PHASE ONE - Research
Methods
I used some standard UX research techniques to try to discover what typical users are looking for when visiting the CBA site. I started with Secondary Research in the form of online Market Research and I also created a Competitive Analysis to see what kind of features similar schools use to present information to their users, and analyze their strengths and weaknesses. CBA isn’t necessarily “competing” with these school, but seeing what similar schools are doing gives us a good lay of the land to get started. I also explored the existing site to understand the existing layout and content. At the request of the client, I also reviewed Google Analytics to see what pages were most visited… keeping in mind that Google Analytics can tell us the what, but it cannot tell us the why.
For Primary Research, I talked to users. I performed a Contextual Inquiry with 6 current CBA students to see how they are (or are not, in most cases) using the CBA website. I also sent a Questionnaire to high school students to find out what they look for on a school website that they might be considering applying to and/or attending.
Competitive Analysis comparing similar schools to CBA. Includes Provisional Personas
Summary of Findings
I uncovered some surprising things in my research, namely that 72% of the current CBA students I interviewed never use the CBA website. on the other hand, prospective students rely heavily on a school’s website. They are looking for content that gives them a feel for what campus life is really like and if they can envision themselves fitting in. The contextual inquiries included a series of tasks for the students to perform while I watched them. Their performance on these tasks helped identify which information is hard to find. I feel like the CBA website is missing an opportunity to engage with current students. It’s important to provide information to prospective students but not at the expense of those currently enrolled.
Please see my Phase One - Research summary with detailed information on my research and recommendations
PHASE TWO - DESIGN/PLAN
Considerations
Based on my research, I identified some issues that should be addressed on the new website. I divided these recommendations into two categories: Navigation, and Content.
NAVIGATION
Insights from market research and contextual inquiries with current students drew my attention to how the current Navigation is structured and where it could benefit from re-organization, superficially ways to make it:
• More intuitive: Organize content based on user expectations
• More User Friendly: Consider using a mega menu and optimized Global Nav and contextual left side nav for fewer clicks and better wayfinding
• Emphasise/elevate Content: There is certain content that the students were completely unable to find. make sure important content can be found.
• Optimise existing Nav: Consider reorganizing the Navigation bar with more descriptive headings, and consider adding more categories if necessary
CONTENT
Consider adding more engaging content to invite a majority of users to interact. Some things to consider:
• Personalization: By focusing on more evergreen (no expiration date), people-focused content rather than event-based content we can give students a better sense of what makes CBA unique. Student spotlight stories, student testimonials, “day in the life” type content is engaging to prospective students and might give current students a more positive connection and feeling of belonging that could impact student success and retention. Consider use of video for some of this content
• Branding: Implement the new branding and ensure that every page looks like it belongs together to give users a sense of place
• Plan for Mobile: Ensure content is skimmable. Enure Images, headlines, and sub heads are organized for easy skimming. Most importantly be sure the site performs as well (if not better) on mobile as it does on a desktop or laptop.
Proposed Site map for CBA site.
Proposed Contextual Side Nav for Department pages.
I proposed changes to the existing site structure that would pull out some of the student related information that was buried in the existing, specifically the Centers & Labs. I also proposed standardizing the Department contextual Navs that appear on each department microsite. The departments had very diverse content, so I had to find broad enough categories that would work for all of them.
To Be Continued