Students at my university were struggling to utilize the resume & job-search resources on our Career Center web portal. I volunteered to solve this issue by implementing a redesigned & reorganized site that included a top-level navigation and an effective information architecture.
UX Research, UX Design, Information Architecture
20 Surveys, 5 interviews
We wanted to:
Key Insights
The data from our user research exposed the following patterns:
I examined several other university’s career centers to better understand other methods of how career center resources are organized for students and alumni.
Discoveries that shaped my direction:
The previous “Students” page hosted links to most of the Career Center’s resume, interview, and job search resources, but they were organized into categories that didn’t make sense to students.
I conducted an open card sort exercise with 10 students to better understand how users think about grouping the different resources that the career center site offers.
I used OptimalWorkshop to create a “best merge” dendogram by making assumptions about larger clusters based on individual pair relationships
After analyzing the results from the card sort, I organized the resources that linked from the student page into categories that made more sense to students: Networking, Professional Skills, Jobs/Internships, Interview Prep, and Resume. I created a sitemap diagram and prototype
Using the sitemap, I implemented a global navigation menu that made more sense to students using the familiar student-alumni-faculty pattern.
Since students were unsure of what they should be working on, I included the categories derived from the previous student page in the navigation and on the home page to better engage students.
I created a design system that would correct the inconsistent text and button styles on the existing pages. I applied the guide to all the pages on the site using the university color palette, light drop shadows and consistent typography to clean everything up.
I brought my vision from low to high fidelity by incorporating the design system and feedback from stakeholders.
Evaluate the ease of navigation between major sections of the site to verify that main flows were as streamlined as possible
Users said that the header of the home page was too busy and they would likely scroll passed it even though it contained important upcoming events.
The new header included a production-quality video that the Career Center had made to advertise all of their resources for students and alumni. The “Upcoming Events” feed was moved to a lower part of the page where it was easier to scan.