Simplifying the course registration process for UPenn students
Role
UXR
Product Design
Timeline
Spring 2023 (5 weeks)
Tools
Figma
Team
Just me!
Challenge
Path@Penn, UPenn's student portal is confusing to navigate, which has led to an increase in help desk requests related to course registration.
How might we redesign it?
Research
What makes course registration so stressful?
To learn more about the pain points, I talked to 7 current UPenn students with varying experience with Path@Penn.
After interviewing 7 students and usability audit, I walked away with these key user insights.
Too many tabs and pages!
Course registration requires a variety of information to make the decision with confidence. The problem is they live in external sites, leading to constant switching of tabs and across different websites.
Navigation and system language is confusing
There are unsused or underused functionalities cluttering the interface which makes it hard to navigate. System language is inconsistent.
Lack of waitlist system leads to uncertainty
Students are left with third-party SMS notification to get notified when spots open, which becomes "up for grabs" for everyone, inducing anxiety when trying to register for popular courses.
From there, I decided to focus on these opportunities.
Solution
01 Customizable dashboard with widgets
Reduces time searching and visual clutter by allowing users to keep only the features they use most often visible.
02 Quick Links & Actions
Shortcuts on the dashboard as icons that are easy to locate at a glance.
03 Collapsible Nav Bar Component
Reduces time searching and visual clutter by allowing users to keep only the features they use most often visible.
04 One split screen page, rather than multiple
Removed slide-in animations to reduce visual distraction
Reduced switching of tabs by providing course information needed to make a decision and immediate visual feedback for added courses in the calendar view
Clarified language by having one "submit" button
05 Waitlist system for popular courses
An integrated waitlist system to reserve a spot and register straight from the app, instead of having to rely on third-party SMS notification.
1) Getting on the waitlist
2) Viewing waitlist status & enrolling
Design Process
Iteration 1 — adding visual aid with icons
Users reported the icons made the landing page less overwhelming and easy to navigate.
However, it still did not solve the problem of constantly switching between tabs.
Iteration 2 — At-a-glance dashboard design
I chose to explore a dashboard design featuring customizable widgets, allowing users to access key information at a glance. This approach minimizes visual clutter and eliminates the need to navigate through multiple tabs.
Takeaways
User research and feedback is important because they challenge personal bias & assumptions.
This project was challenging because I was also one of the users as a student at Penn at the time. Conducting usability testing and listening to other’s feedback revealed insights that I hadn't thought of.
Always consider edge cases.
Simplicity shouldn’t be at the expense of inclusivity. Some found the “underutilized” features such as advanced search and landing page hyperlinks useful. We should be careful when making decisions on whether to keep or remove features, even if they seem small.