• Redefining the “My UW” Experience

My UW Advisory GroupAugust 27, 2013Phyllis TreigeUser Experience Consultant

Let’s step away from “the Portal” and get some perspective…

• What challenges do students, faculty/instructors, and staff face?

• What “jobs” do they have and how/when do they do them?

• Where are heaviest needs for support?

Hypotheses• Students/employees don’t know when or how to do

things– Missed deadlines/opportunities, increased need for support, disengagement

• Info/resources/answers are hard to find– Spread out, different sites, some offline– Resources don’t match questions (university terminology ≠ user terminology) – Grouped by responsible unit/dept., not task

• Campus stakeholders can’t get attention/focus• Many campus apps are difficult to use (Stud. Ctr.)• Need to log in to many different sites/apps

Discovery

• User Interviews– Students, faculty, staff, advisors, and more– ~30 one-on-one interviews complete,

still more to come• Focus & Other Groups

– AARB, Div. Student Life, U Comm, VIP, Mobile UW• Usage Data

Discovery Findings• “You know that I’m a student so why not show me the most useful stuff?”• “I don’t know the answer to that question until I get to the next step…”• “Why are there so many steps anyway?”• “Tabs and tools that don’t talk to each other…I really had to adapt to being

here…very confusing…redundancy…downright weird…”• “I have a hard time figuring out the best place to go.”• “I’m probably not the best person to ask because I don’t know how to use

the tools very well…”• “I don’t know what students see…it can be embarrassing and makes me

feel incompetent.”• “Talking to the computer, not to each other…computer coming b/w us.”• “We don’t have control over that part of the process…so we just do our

best.”

Discovery Findings (cont.)• Absence of shared, nuanced life cycles for key roles

– Missing the needs, context for common tasks– Difficult to prioritize and assess best solution(s) in narrow niches

• Unable to “see” what students see but asked to help– Teaching the tools (Course Guide, Schedule PLanner, Student

Center) and the process gets lost– Difficult to get birds eye view of experience, work in siloes

• Common tasks (class reg, course setup, vacation balance, etc.) can be challenging, even anxiety inducing– Clumsy handoffs between people/systems/applications– Frustration increases with (in)frequency, urgency/importance, degree

of contingency, etc.

Example

Discovery Findings (cont.)• Notifications/deadlines via multiple sources, formats

– Consensus = miss some things, particularly enrichment opp’s

• Email & calendar central, not well integrated• Unintended consequences

– Transition from print course catalog to Course Guide– Students electing to take less rigorous classes

• Multiple hats makes audience-driven content challenging• “Me” info in multiple systems, hard to know source• From a student perspective, there’s a “secret sauce” in VIP

work experience

Needs, tasks, jobs—oh my• Planning, selecting & registering for classes• Picking a major, navigating requirements• Entering time sheets• Teaching someone how to do something (from

simple > complex tasks)• Planning and setting up course, grade book• Submitting grades• Initial benefit selection & subsequent changes• Planning vacations or time off

Getting Started

Design Principles*• Start with (user) needs• Do less, be selective• Design with data• Do the hard work to make it simple• Iterate. Then iterate again.• Build for inclusion• Understand the context• Be consistent, not uniform• Make things open, it makes things better*Adapted from GOV.UK Design Principles

Preview User Interface

http://share.axure.com/NAVY8O/

Review Design Themes• Infrastructure to support first

person “My UW” experience– Notifications, My Profile, Favorites, Settings, etc.– Smart defaults w/ opp. to customize

• Streamlined content, “marketplace” driven– Motivate the creation of effective resources

• Comprehensive visual style guide• A repeatable user-focused design

process– Shape more integrated, holistic experiences

ALONGSIDE NEED:

Inclusive & contextual life cycle info for key roles--students, faculty, staff, advisors--and awareness of overlap and gaps

Challenges

• Achieving shared understanding of design principles & process

• May reveal gaps, inefficiencies, and opportunities

• More labor intensive for discovery, design & implementation– Each need/task is a design challenge in and of

itself

Next Steps• Collect My UW Advisory Group feedback• Collect broader user feedback• Continue design iteration, refine default

experience for key roles (students, faculty, staff)

• Prioritize implementation and stage efforts• Roll out• Continue to iterate and evolve

Discussion