Time frame: 6 weeks
Role: UX Designer (research, interaction design, visual design)
Tools used: Figma, InDesign, Illustrator
Role: UX Designer (research, interaction design, visual design)
Tools used: Figma, InDesign, Illustrator
The "Areas of Interest" page is where students can go to explore career fields and interests.
Challenge
Santa Monica College is a two-year community college best known for helping students transfer to other universities and returning students continue their education. Currently, the college is looking to increase student retention rates by helping students declare a major early on. They need help figuring out how to gain more interest and traffic for the career/majors page, Areas of Interest.
Goal
I worked with a group of three and had six weeks to figure out the following:
1. Develop interest and more traffic for the Areas of Interest page
2. Find a way to build communities and clearer communication around the Areas of Interest page
Research Insights
Stakeholder Interview
We interviewed the school dean and career counselors at Santa Monica College to understand their limitations and what they want students to know. We found the following:
1. Students tend to ask a lot of the same questions and meet with counselors at the last minute.
2. There are a lot of career resources already in place that students miss.
3. Santa Monica College uses a homegrown system and has a limited budget.
Subject Matter Expert Interview
Based on our interview with career counselors at Santa Monica College, we found that career advising is a huge resource that students usually don’t know they need it until they do, so we wanted to put the spotlight on that.
Student Interviews
Since this project took place during COVID, our team interviewed 7 students through Zoom. We encouraged students to walk us through their website scrolling experience.
Notable observations:
1. Webpage had too much text and scrolling
2. There wasn't any visually engaging content
3. Too many links made you dig for information
Heuristic Analysis
We examined some of the webpages that a student had to navigate to explore majors and career paths. There were pages like the Areas of Interest, Undecided (Counseling), Degrees and Certificates. Like the student interviews, we found that the text hierarchy was confusing and the sheer amount of information felt overwhelming.
Ideation
Brainstorming + Sketching
Based on our research, we found that the Areas of Interest page needed a redesign and that the school's career counseling service could be highlighted because it was such a underused resource. Next, our focus was on how we could help students find their motivation and their goals through the Areas of Interest page:
1. Make it feel fun and like an adventure!
2. Make it relatable. Focus on common feelings and frustrations among students
3. Give the student control
Sketch
Digital Rough
Solution
Prototype
I went with a "Choose Your Adventure" theme to engage students and clearly illustrate the student's journey in school. Students are given three main feelings they might have throughout their journey:
"I'm confident": Okay! Let's see what steps you need to take to get you to the career you want.
"I'm not sure": No problem, let's explore the different options you have with a career counselor.
"I'm lost": No worries! How about we take some time to get to know you and your goals?
Areas of Interest page - redesigned by Janet Kang (me)
#1: Get Me There Quickly!
Friendly and more personalized options. It's still simple, but purpose of career resources is clear, and it takes less clicks it takes to get to resources
BEFORE
AFTER
Counseling page - redesigned by Luisa Trinidad
#2: Tell Me What I need
Extra links are removed for easy reading and clearer hierarchy. Career counseling is the focus of the buttons because that is the most valuable, untapped resource at the college.
BEFORE
AFTER
Results
Our group received generally positive feedback on the design, and it sparked a discussion on whether students would prefer exploring the website on their own over meeting with a counselor right away.
Reflection
The next step would definitely be to test the prototype out with more students and work on another iteration. If I had more time to work on the project, I would also like to see how I could highlight Santa Monica College counselors on the page so that more students are encouraged to see a counselor before committing to a major.
