Background
- Huge redesign effort to refresh Continuing Studies Website
- Project began as homepage improvement initiative, but scope expanded as it was clear that attention and improvements were needed in many areas of the site:
- Users reported registration page was unclear
- Users reported ‘missing’ course detail information
- Site-wide secondary menu was not CS-contextual. CS staff reports common instances of students registering for academic studies rather than continuing studies
- Main navigation was convoluted and contained too many competing items
- Use of header image carousels for promotional material meant analytics and heatmap software could not reliably ascertain the most popular and appealing content
- Frequent student reports of frustration due to incomplete information about various classroom locations and teaching sites
Role
- Analyzed website and wrote a report of 10 usability improvements
- Each recommendation graded ‘High, Medium, or Low’ based on Difficulty Level, Feasibility, and Importance to User
- Led Mixed-Methodology Usability Research Approach
- Physical card-sorting exercise with CS staff
- Online card-sorting exercise open to general public
- Independent 3rd party Focus Group Findings (Insights West)
- Verified and refined final designs using qualitative ‘think-aloud’ participant sessions
- Led creative vision, prototyping, and mockup designs for each proposed site improvement in mobile, tablet, and desktop viewports
- Wrote responsive CSS and HTML in Coda, Sublime Text, and managed collaboration of files in GitHub
- Development, testing, and production sites managed in Cascade Server CMS
- Worked in collaboration with Digital Strategy Manager and client for content as well as Developers for technical adjustments
https://langara.ca/continuing-studies/index.html
