Yulia Goldenberg, Ph.D.
Lecturer@The Academic College of Tel Aviv-Jaffa.
“Not only was this project great, but the teamwork behind it was excellent! This is an excellent interface. I wish it was widely available.”
StudyHub- A learning platform designed for students and educators.
Project Overview
As part of my psychology BA studies and UX major, I participated in the UX design for complex systems course, and StudyHub is my team's final project - we decided to improve the existing student portal.
Defining The Challenge
The Problem
The college's current student portal is inconvenient and unclear, making it hard for students to access information and assignments.
The Goal
Creating a convenient and understandable system that mediates between the student and the services of the educational institution.
The Task (How)
Making information, tasks, and assignments easily accessible to the student.
System Goals
KPIs
- Reduce lecture information search time to under 1 minute.
- Decrease presentation/document download time to less than 1 minute.
- Minimize submission time for works and exercises to under 1 minute.
- Increase average system satisfaction to above 4 out of 5.
Competitors Analysis
My team and I examined our current competitors, which are similar systems being used in different institutions, and compiled a list of pros and cons:
Pros:
- Accessible lectures contact info.
- Calendar with relevant and contextual info.
- Accessible files per class and time.
Cons:
- Irrelevant info & actions are located in key system locations.
- Irrelevant info & actions for different types of users- such as students and lecturers.
- Bad use of UI and layout.
Discover User Research Methods
In order to get inspire, explore and choose directions and opportunities, we committed the following qualitative and quantitative methods:
- User feedback - 50 students: Self-reported, open-ended, and close-ended information provided by a sample of users (students) through an online questionnaire.
- Interviews - 5 students : A researcher conducted interviews with potential students to discuss in depth what the participant thinks about the topic in question.
Qualitative Research- User Interviews
Before interviewing the students, we wrote an interview script. Our students provided us with some feedback regarding how they are using the current system:
Task Analysis
Following the user interviews and user feedback, we converted the data into a task analysis format. As a result, we will have the bottom-line prioritization of all of the data items and actions our users will perform on the new platform we will provide.
User Requirements
Information
- Dates of assignments
- Daily calendar
- Test and exams dates
- Messages from lecturer
- Tests from previous years
Actions
- Works and exercises submission
- Download & viewing presentations
- Ordering documents & certificates
- Courses registration
- Payment of tuition
Concept 01
Action Flow-Downloading a presentation file of a certain course
References
College of Management Academic
- Each course displayed presenting it is vital info.
- The hierarchy of information is logical and intuitive.
Hadassah Academic College
- The course layout was clear and efficient.
- Consistent content throughout courses.
Wireframe
Pros
- Most relevant information is displayed.
- Match between the system and the real world.
- Consistency and standards.
- Recognition rather than recall.
- Flexibility and efficiency of use.
- Help and documentation.
- The simple layout is easy to scan and is understandable.
Cons
- The visual layout may be too simple/cute.
- Lack of student's personal information - year, school, grades
Concept 02
Action Flow- Submission of assignments and exercises
References
- Clean, flat & modern dashboard UI.
- Clear hierarchy, profile area.
- Simple, easy to scan, and understandable layout.
- System search bar, accessible support.
Wireframe
Pros
- Information dashboard display
- Search bar efficiency
- Outlined important actions (such as registering for new courses)
- Flexibility and efficiency of use
- Aesthetic and minimalist design
- Solution-based customized system
- Help and documentation
Cons
- Can cause cognitive overload
- Can cause orientation confusion
- Can take time to adjust
Concepts conclusion
Our classmates and lecturer reviewed both concepts and offered their feedback.
As a result of both concepts, we then designed the final version based on the features and layouts that were most popular with the users. Check out the demo prototype of the final concept :
Main Challengens
Methodological Approaches and Research
- We published a quantitative questionnaire with plenty of specific info for our participants, which may have led to form abandonment. To prevent this, we opted for scaling all user experience questions from 1 to 4 (vs. open-ended questions) to avoid burnout.
- The scaling wasn’t accidental. We decided to analyze our findings through an even scale based on methodological research methods, due to the fact that an odd scale can lead to ambiguous results when participants are filling in the ‘middle’ answer. Put simply, we allowed our participants to choose an answer that leans towards one end.
- On the qualitative research, when we started the competitor’s research so we can understand what student systems are on the market, we didn’t have enough knowledge about the system’s backend, and this gap led us to conduct qualitative research with our campuses online support team, to discover and research ‘Moodle’ system, which led us to the finding that it is used by all of the universities in Israel.
Design and UCD
- When we designed our final concepts, we had to decide how to present the courses that are taking place on the same day within the homepage screen. We thought maybe we could present different pictures for each course to differentiate between them, but after some research, we decided to apply the ‘Aesthetic and minimalist design’ heuristic and have each presented with its title and a unique color gradient.
- An issue that was brought forward at the peer review was the high cognitive load - too many details. We wanted to reduce cognitive load when viewing the homepage, and therefore we allowed users to see which tasks, exams, and other to-do’s they have by adding a small indication number at the title. this principle is based on ‘Visibility of System Status’ - the user knows at a moment glance what else he needs to accomplish, without being overwhelmed by information.
Next Steps
Out-of-scope questions in the current process that require further consideration
- Convert the final design to work on both mobile and tablet devices.
- Create full user fellows for all the actions and screens in the system.
- Define further KPIs for more features.
- A-B testing for main screens and features.
- Create a system for a lecturer profile.
- Present and collect feedback from more stakeholders.
Thanks to my wonderful team, I learned a lot working with you: Omer Aviram, Nimrod Sagisman, Noya Ariel, Dana Sergeev.
Final grade in the course: A+
