UHM LA Program Case Study

UHM Learning Assistant Program

Redesigning the University of Hawaii at Manoa's Learning Assistant Program website.

Challenge

While the University of Hawaii (UH) at Manoa’s LA program website is currently up and running, there’s room to improvement that can positively impact the user experience when visiting this website. Areas I feel could use improvement include, better information architecture, improvement in user and task flows, consistent typeface size and fonts across the website, and consistent graphic/image size and styles.

Solution

Redesign a responsive website for UH Manoa’s LA Program that provides an improved user experience for students, faculty and LAs.

UX Researcher
UX/UI Designer

2 weeks
(80 hours)

Figma
Maze.co
Whimsical

Empathize

I utilized two research methods to gather information about the current experience of the UHM LA Program website and other LA Program websites: competitive analysis and user interviews.

Research goal: To better understand the current user experience to determine which areas of improvement to prioritize.

Competitive Analysis

I started by analyzing competitors to see what strengths, weakness and the similar capabilities were. With this analysis, I found that the STEMS2 (the client’s inspiration) website had a lot of components that we could utilized on the LA Website.

Usability test and Findings

Now that I had a better understanding of the competitors, I wanted to better understand the user experience when visiting the current website. I conducted 5 usability tests to gather information about user’s experience with the current LA Website.

After I conducted the interviews, I then utilized an affinity map to better synthesis the information that was gathered. It’s clear that this website is functional but could use many improvements.

100%

INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE
5 out of 5 participants stated that the information they were asked to find was not where they expected it to be.

100%

PAGE TITLES
5 out of 5 participants stated that the title Student Resources was not clear - They expected this section to have information for students in LA supported classes, not information for prospecting LAs.

Define

User Persona

After developing a deeper understanding of the users’ needs and goals, I was able to form two main user personas based on the insights that were gained through my discovery research.

Sitemap

Based on the data that was collected, I brainstormed, compiled and organized the information architecture into a new sitemap.

Ideate

Wireframes

After creating the sitemap, I began designing low-fidelity wireframes.

Home Page

Create an engaging and welcoming homepage that encourages visitors to continue browsing to learn more about the program.

Information Pages

Redesigning each section to include images and graphics to break up texts and encourage visitors to continue browsing through the website.

UI Kit

Before developing the high-fidelity wireframes, I created a design system to ensure that every screen is visually consistent. This UI Kit follows The University of Hawaii at Manoa’s current color and typography system.

Prototype

Final UI

Once the brand style and UI library was created, I turned the low fidelity wireframes into a high fidelity prototype.

Home Page

The homepage includes graphics and videos to engage the user and encourage them to continue learning more about the LA program. Important dates and CTA buttons were also added to help users easily complete tasks.

Before

After

Information Pages

Graphics and images were added throughout the website to help with readability and break up long segments of texts. Old graphics were also updated to match the new website theme.

Before

After

Task Pages

How to apply and submit course proposal pages were updated to help encourage users to complete the task and mitigate user drop-off. Images and CTA buttons were added and the instructions on these pages were simplified.

Before

After

Test

Usability testing

I conducted seven usability tests using a high fidelity prototype of UHM’s new LA Program Website. There were two main tasks for the participants to complete: find a list of LA supported courses and create an LA profile. Both of these tasks were newly added to the website.

Research goal: To assess the overall usability of the new website and identify any frustrations users may encounter when completing this new tasks

‍

The website is simple, yet also visually appealing. Good use of pictures to complement descriptions and other information.

Insights

Overall, the participants all stated that the look and feel of the new website is modern, simple and very easy to navigate. One participant said that the fonts allowed for easy reading and another participant stated that there was a good use of pictures throughout the website.

Iteration Opportunities

However, there were areas of improvement that surfaced. One participant mentioned the use of 2 CTA buttons on the home screen. They went on to say that they didn’t see a need for the faculty button and that it might not produce the high level of traffic we might be expecting. Another participant stated that it would be nice to see more quotes from current and past LAs.

Priority Revisions

Using the information gathered through usability testing, I made revisions to the website and created a final prototype

CTA Buttons

One participant mentioned that the CTA buttons on the homepage were not so intuitive and thought tha the faculty button wouldn’t warrant as much traffic as the student button. However, the client wanted to ensure that the homepage was inclusive of faculty and not only welcoming for prospecting LAs. Since this was a priority for the clients, I opted for keeping two CTA buttons but turning one into a secondary button.

Before

After

Adding Testimonies

One theme that surfaced during usability testing was more interactions with current and past LAs. I added testimonies to various pages throughout the website to help encourage prospecting LAs and faculty members.

Before

After

Future Considerations

gain more perspectives

Although I was able to interview with many current Learning Assistants that have experience with the program, we weren’t able to gather participants outside of the LA community due to time constraints and conflicting schedules. If I were to conduct this project again, I’d ensure that we gather insights from participants with varying backgrounds and familiarity with the program.

Next steps- expanding the website

As I continue working with the LA Program, we’d like to continue adding resources to the website to encourage the current community to continue growing and learning. The next section that we will be adding will include professional development opportunities and articles that will support current faculty members and LAs.

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