IMPROVE EDUCATIONAL MANAGEMENT SERVICES ONLINE RESOURCES AVAILIBIITY

International Technological University wanted us to uncover crucial insight about how users perceive

the school Educational Management System (EMS) website and with a focus on their interactions with

the website's search bar. Our core challenge was to identify the user's pain-points while interacting

and seeking resources through the website. In addition to this, we also were to devise a Usability Study,

that would help the EMS Team to serve their diverse users better.

The Research Process

ROAD MAP TO DISCOVERING INSIGHT

International Technological University  EMS serves a diverse population of which the technological and

academic experiences vary widely. Following process was adopted to investigate the user's

challenges, interaction &  of the EMS website. The project outcomes of this Usability Study will be used

to directly inform a Usability study.

User Interviews & Analysis

LISTENING TO THE USERS

To begin the project, we  invited students in the library to tell us about their experiences with

the EMS website. We obtained feedback from five users about their perspective on the

EMS website, with a specific focus and emphasis on the search functions and capabilities.

After conducting interviews, we engaged in the task of analyzing the user data and identified

key areas for conducting the usability study-

- Who are the potential users of the website - Staff, students, faculty etc.​

- Why and when students use the EMS website?

- What do users like about the EMS website?

- What do users dislike about the website?

User Personas

CREATING EMPATHY FOR USERS

Our persona hypothesis consisted of three different archetypes which we used to facilitate

discussions and negotiate users needs, desires and varying contexts. Through careful analysis

of the interviews, we identified sufficient behavioral variables to categorize as well as

differentiate our user audience. These personas served as the guide for design decisions,

priorities and foster empathy amongst the clients and ourselves as a team. Finally, they

helped us to provide the client a 360 degree insight into their user base. 

Storyboarding

VISUALIZING THE EXPERIENCE

Building further on the user personas, we create storyboards to further elaborate and detail the user's

interaction with the EMS website and laid down plot points for all the personas and 'archetype'. These

storyboards also allowed us to articulate and highlight the pain points of the users.

Design Ideation

BRAINSTORMING ON PAPER

After talking to user's I had crucial insight into the user's expectations. I started sketching different

alternatives on paper to rapidly ideate and brainstorm solutions. 

TRANSFORMING THE EXPERIENCE

After solidifying the features of the website, I engaged in brainstorming the overall experience

that the website was going to deliver. Keeping in mind the user's priorities and pain point's,

my aim was to transform this experience into something useful and engaging. Thus, I started

visualizing the flow and interactions of the EMS website.

The Design Prototype

SENSING THE EMS CONTENTS

Low Fidelity Wireframe

High Fidelity Wireframe

Final Redesigns

DESIGNING FOR USER NEEDS

Reflections

IMPACT AND OUTCOME

The EMS website is an extremely valuable place full of resources and information for the

students to utilize. With a focus on the search box of the EMS website, we gained important

insight on how the users perceive and understand its functionality. Within our focus on the

search box of the EMS website, we concluded our project with a set of usability tasks, design

suggestions, as well as other recommendations that will help the EMS team to gain a deeper

understanding of how their users interact with the website to improve it.