Project Problem Statement

One of the major issues that college students face today is their uncertainty regarding course selection and which classes would best suit their needs. They may seek either easy or challenging courses, but ultimately, they require classes that align with their lifestyle. Additionally, I've observed that the university's course registration system is extremely disorganized. There isn't a centralized platform providing accurate course descriptions or a way to gather student feedback. The registration process is complex and time-consuming, often leading students to be unable to enroll in their desired courses.

Project Goal

Academix is committed to creating a data-driven course selection platform. It offers detailed course descriptions and incorporates student feedback. This platform aims to help students seamlessly integrate their coursework with their daily lives, elevating the quality of their academic experiences. By streamlining the registration process, Academix ensures students efficiently enroll in courses that align with their individual lifestyles.

Competitive Analysis

Direct Competitor

University Registration Systems:

University of Utah registration page

Strengths

Integrated with the school system, students can access more accurate information and directly provide feedback on the school's platform without the need to log in to other external websites.
The school provides a more convenient and flexible course selection service. The school can offers manual assistance to help students navigate their course choices, in case of selection errors.

Weakness

Disordered formatting and mixed-up information demand students to invest a significant amount of time and effort to obtain meaningful information.
Unable to provide a platform for students to give real-time course feedback.
Students often need to navigate through multiple pages to achieve their goals. For instance, while selecting courses, students may have to open degree audit, course catalog, and detailed course information pages to understand the comprehensive details of a course.

Other Competitor

Strengths

Simple design, well-organized layout, and visually appealing interface facilitate users in swiftly and efficiently accessing information.

Weakness

Lacks an evaluation feature.
Slow updates on webpage information.

Strengths

Simple design, well-organized layout, and visually appealing interface facilitate users in swiftly and efficiently accessing information.

Weakness

Leverages a substantial user base with extensive user feedback data.Outdated design.
Solely provides evaluation functionality.
Insufficient course-related information.

Strengths

Limited functionality: offers evaluation features without comprehensive course information.

Weakness

Monotonous design
excessive webpage advertisements.

Our Opportunities

Opportunities

Integrate the degree audit with the course selection function, allowing students to view their entire degree audit while selecting courses. This reduces unnecessary web page navigation for students when fulfilling their course selection requirements.
Provide students with the ability to evaluate courses and incorporate a feature allowing them to access historical student evaluations. This assists students in obtaining additional information beyond the brief course outlines provided by the school.

Threats

Integrated directly with the school system, students can use their student accounts directly for course enrollment. If the course enrollment and evaluation features are further improved, students are highly likely to refrain from using third-party software.
With a substantial user base, there's no necessity for supplementary advertising efforts. This ensures the delivery of more precise and immediate information.
Ensures the delivery of more precise and immediate information.

User research summary

Academix integrates course selection, evaluation, and teaching feedback functions into its system, providing users with a multifunctional and diverse experience using concrete, extensive, and accurate data.

Academix prioritizes student-centric layouts and designs, enabling students to efficiently and accurately accomplish their goals. Beyond singular course selection and evaluation features, Academix introduces additional functionalities, such as a customizable schedule page, facilitating a better integration of students' academic and daily life routines.

Pain Points

Outdated design and fragmented information gathering prevent users from accurately discerning information.

Users are unable to evaluate courses or view information about courses from other users, resulting in a lack of interactive experience among users.

Almost all information is presented in text format, which is not user-friendly for individuals with reading difficulties and also increases the difficulty for users to comprehend the information.

Users have to navigate between pages continuously for course selection, requiring them to view accurate course information while making their selections. This consumes a significant amount of user attention and increases the chances of errors before completing their objectives.

What can academix do for our users?

Course Overview Page - A cleanly formatted course evaluation page enables students to swiftly browse through course feedback.

Class Detail Page - Eliminating boring text information, use data-driven method to help students clearly understand course information.

Registeration Page - Integrating the timetable preview with the course selection function allows students to gain a detailed understanding of their future course schedule while enrolling in classes. This facilitates students in organizing their daily routines, and selecting courses that better align with their lifestyle.

Search Page - The customizable Time Schedule page allows students to integrate course selection with personalized time arrangements, offering a more flexible schedule and enhancing students' interactive experience. Providing the options to filter the results beased on their own choices and perferences.

Useability Testing Findings

The current layout presents challenges in navigating seamlessly between various components and features. For instance, when transitioning from the class page to the registration section, users encountered difficulties discerning whether the class registration and enrollment were successful. Additionally, the updated schedules, reflecting changes in registered classes, were not clearly visible, further complicating the user experience.
Users faced challenges in comprehending the various class catalogs, particularly finding it difficult to distinguish between different catalogs under General Education courses. The distinctions are intricate and not easily memorized, emphasizing the need for a clearer system to differentiate between the catalogs.
Users frequently encounter challenges when searching for specific classes, especially when confronted with courses for which they haven't met the prerequisites. Exploring alternative algorithms is imperative to provide students with a clearer view of classes they can consistently register for and those that align with their interests.
Users face difficulty discerning the specific reasons to register for a class, struggling to identify points of interest and comprehend the actual content. This echoes a recurring challenge from the old-school registration system. Enhancements are needed to provide users with clearer insights into class content and compelling reasons to enroll.

Solutions

We've revamped the page layouts, implementing distinct indicators for various components. Notably, we've incorporated a condensed version of registered classes to enhance the clarity of the registration process.
We've introduced explanations for different catalogs and supplemented them with example classes to elucidate their content. Despite our efforts, the confusing naming conventions employed by schools persist as a challenge for users. In response, we've strategically relocated catalog names to a less prominent position and emphasized the section that highlights classes missing from graduation requirements for improved clarity.
We've implemented changes to enhance user experience by defaulting to hide unqualified classes from search results (users have the option to reveal them by clicking "show unqualified classes"). Additionally, we've introduced a ranking system that organizes classes based on both past interest and current grade, providing users with a more personalized and streamlined search experience.
We've implemented a tag system on the course introduction page, showcasing keywords extracted from student comments and featuring top-rated comments. Additionally, we've enriched the course introduction by providing a concise overview of the class, its actual content, and an accessible syllabus. This comprehensive approach aims to offer students valuable insights and a well-rounded understanding of the course.

Academix

Navigating Knowledge, Shaping Futures.

Data-driven Course Catalogs. Easier Searching. Easier Scheduling

Design Duration

August 2023 - November 2023

3 Months

My Role

UI designer

UX researcher

UX writer

Responsibilities:

Design Ideas Illustration

Visual Design

User Experience Research

Wireframing

Prototyping

User Flow Design

Useability Testing

Feedback Collection

Tools Used

Figma (Prototyping/Wireframing)

PhotoShop (Photo Editing)

Procreate (Icon/Image creation)

Project Problem Statement

Project Goal

Competitive Analysis

Direct Competitor

University Registration Systems:

University of Utah registration page

Strengths

Weakness

Other Competitor

Strengths

Weakness

Strengths

Weakness

Strengths

Weakness

Our Opportunities

Opportunities

Threats

User research summary

Pain Points

User personas

What can academix do for our users?

Accessibility Considerations

Useability Testing Findings

Solutions