Redesign of an existing website for the degree programme of Design at Metropolia UAS
Role
UX/UI Designer, Graphic Designer, WordPress developer
Content
Website redesign, Graphics, WordPress website creation
Year
2024
Summary
Tasked with redesigning and reimplementing the Design degree program’s website, we benchmarked competitors and conducted user research (interviews, journey mapping, flows) targeting existing and new user groups. Research revealed issues with information structure and communication, potentially reflecting broader institutional problems. User journey maps highlighted pain points, informing wireframes and iterative designs, adhering to (but creatively interpreting) Metropolia’s style guide. Further testing revealed possible GDPR issues. Technical implementation, hampered by existing WordPress issues and a site crash, was unfortunately not completed during my internship, but was handed off with identified next steps. The project yielded valuable research, refreshed designs, and a partially completed implementation. The website crash and resulting delays reinforced my ability to handle situations outside my control.
We were tasked with redesigning and technically implementing a new version of an existing website for the degree programme of Design at Metropolia UAS.
Me and my colleague started the process by benchmarking other higher education institutions as well as businesses related to design, art and creativity to find possible shortcomings compared to the competition. This was especially important because the point of the website refresh was to improve accessibility, usability and visual identity as well as include new types of content and majors from the Degree programme of Design that were previously missing from the site.
Thorough user research was carried out in the form of user interviews, user journey mapping and user flows. With these we wanted to focus in existing user groups and possible new ones.
Seven interviews were carried out and analyzed in a short span of just a few days. Two heads of degree programmes, one business representative & four students both from majors already on the site and ones that would be included in the refresh. The interviews handled issues and pain points with the site (current users) and new needs and special requirements (new users). We decided to include short think aloud tests in these interviews.
The results showed that there were problems with poor information structuring, missing information and overall communication. We compared the state of the site to others that represent Metropolia UAS and found that behind some of these issues there might be some institution wide problems. Our client was very pleased with the research and proposed that our findings could be forwarded to the communications department.
After this we stepped into user journey mapping in order to pin point the pain points of three main user groups (heads of degree, businesses, students). These helped us create better user flows on top of validating design decisions such as the overall information architecture that we had made according to prior research done by a different group.
The findings from the interviews, think aloud testing and user journey mapping helped us create an improved and massively streamlined sitemap. With our new information architecture we were able take the number of “main” pages down form 15 to just 4 creating a simplified and easy to use experience.
We created multiple versions of wireframes based on our research findings. We gathered feedback from the wireframes and created design iterations. Best one’s out of these were picked based on feedback from test users.
We created multiple versions of wireframes based on our research findings. We gathered feedback from the wireframes and created design iterations. Best one’s out of these were picked based on feedback from test users.
After this point I continued with this project on my own. I designed layouts in two styles based on the two favorites that were picked out of the wireframes. I continued with the iteration and gathered feedback to continuously improve the designs. Due to the website representing Metropolia UAS I needed to adhere to Metropolia’s style guide to a certain degree. Luckily there was some leeway due to the website’s nature of representing a Degree programme more than Mertopolia UAS itself. I created a component set to help with rapid iteration and visual cohesion.
A style was picked and based on it I created a prototype for testing before starting with the technical implementation. I found minor accessibility issues that could be fixed in the implementation. I also checked the current WordPress implementation and found problems that could lead to GDPR issues. These were taken into consideration when starting with the technical implementation.
I was about to get started when problems with the existing WordPress implementation’s old theme caused havoc due to incompatibilities with a server side update. This resulted in the whole website crashing as well as halted the process and lead to a little over a week’s delay. The project was put on hold and I worked on other projects while the Metropolia webmaster fixed the issues by disabling certain plugins and the outdated theme.
Finally I was able to fully start with the technical implementation and test out some major worries with the new version but sadly due to the website’s size and the project’s scope I did not get to finish the technical implementation during my internship at Valovirta Design. The next steps in implementation and testing were handed over to future Valovirta trainees.
Finally I was able to fully start with the technical implementation and test out some major worries with the new version but sadly due to the website’s size and the project’s scope I did not get to finish the technical implementation during my internship at Valovirta Design. The next steps in implementation and testing were handed over to future Valovirta trainees.
We did thorough research that helped not only with this project but could possibly help with similar future endeavors. I created polished refreshed designs with important improvements based in our research findings. On top of this I started with the technical implementation of the new version of the website.
Due to problems with the existing technical implementation (which at one time resulted in the whole website crashing) I needed to do a lot of rescheduling in my end as well as had to be ok with not being able to do anything at times. It really helped me to be even more ok with something being out of my hands.
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