UBC Computer Science Department graduate student recruiting page
Paid contract, University of British Columbia, 2009
Additional team members: Dr. Karon MacLean, Meghan Allen, Tim Li, Matthew Lockyer, Gwen Echlin
Overview
The Communications Committee of the University of British Columbia Department of Computer Science received complaints that the graduate student recruiting web page was difficult to navigate and that many potential students were struggling to find information about the department and the application process. Two members of the committee, Dr. Karon MacLean and Meghan Allen, took responsibility for organizing a review and redesign of the web site. I was hired to take the lead in planning and executing the actual work. Along with two other students and a member of the department tech staff, I ran a usability study to identify issues with the old web site and a focus group to determine which information was most important to potential students. We then created a new navigational and content structure to better fit with what the users need and expect. We wrote the new content for the web site and tested it in another round of usability testing. Our new content is now live.
Key skills used
- Interviews
- Focus group
- Qualitative user studies
- Requirements generation
- Information architecture
- Content creation
- Interactive prototyping