UB Site Redesign

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Project Plan Report 1

• Tasks by Deliverable 1 • Team Member Roles and Responsibilities 1 • Team Communication Process 2

Team Issue Management Process • 2

Functional Specifications

• Strategy – Business Goals – University of Baltimore Web site Undergraduate Components – Audience Research – Personas – Web site Research

• Scope – Web site Objectives and Scope Description – Content Requirements

• Structure – Organizational (Categorization) and Navigational Schemes

• Skeleton – Information Design – Wireframes – Navigation Design – Site Map – Usability Test Results

Appendices

• Appendix 1 – Office of the Provost Lower Division Academic Concept Paper • Appendix II – Phone Interview with Anthony Butler, UB Admissions Counselor • Appendix III – Standard UB Admissions Response Letter to Inquiring High School Students • Appendix IV – User Testing Script • Appendix V – Deleted Sections of Revised Final Project • Appendix VI – User Research Prototype Testing Session Script Project Plan

IDIA 630 Final ProjectUB Site Redesign

May 4, 2005

Wallace, King, and Discher 1

Project Plan Report

Tasks by Deliverable

The attached spreadsheet outlines the group’s plan for completion of each phase of the final project. The work is broken up into three distinct deliverables: Project Plan, Functional Specifications, and the Prototype Report. Each of these deliverables is broken down into its fundamental parts, with each group member assigned specific tasks that will contribute to the final deliverable.

Included in this chart are multiple color codes indicating which group member is responsible for each project component, as well as colors indicating three distinct varieties of deadline. The first type of deadline refers to internal group deadlines that span a two-week period. This will provide the group with a time range in which to complete each task. The second and third type of deadline is the draft deadline and the final project deadline required by Professor Summers, respectively. This multiple deadline configuration allows for group evaluation of each piece of the project, and will provide a significant time lag between the internal deadline and the final project deadline.

In addition to deadlines, the chart also contains two version evaluation points. These points indicate when the group will reevaluate the project plan for necessary changes. At these points, it will be important to review the work completed, analyze the group’s strategy, and adjust the project plan accordingly.

Team Member Roles and Responsibilities

Each team member will be responsible for completing the tasks assigned on the project plan spread sheet. Again, this plan will be subject to change at both version evaluation points. The deliverables for every project component will be made available to the rest of the group during the initial group deadline period. It will also be the responsibility of each group member to communicate any issues that might hinder the completion of project components by the agreed upon deadlines.

Larry has experience Larry, I need the latest version of the project plan we did that had your updated info.

As a member of the museum staff at a medical museum, Bill has experience working with the visiting public, which often has no understanding of medical science, and visiting medical researchers with a great deal of knowledge in medical science but very little understanding of computer graphics. This job requires him to be sympathetic of the visitor's perspective and not assume that the visitor has the same understanding of the museum content and research tools as he does. This means Bill must approach familiar subject matter as though he were seeing it for the first time, a skill that is enhanced by his years of training as a graphics and illustration professional. The museum's physical environment is a combination of organization, labeling, and navigation schemes. Therefore, Bill's work environment is a form of information architecture.

Jenny has experience proofreading, copy and content editing, and has a growing knowledge of how accountants audit and assess workflow of numerous operations (a process that is eerily similar to the structure used in information architecture). Her strong points include pointing out errors, both her own and others, providing anal retentive adherence to overarching style guides for project manipulation, and is perfecting the art of


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mind-reading, which may help in user interviews. Metadata and paratext may be areas where Jenny may also be of service, as linguistics, generational jargon gaps, and un-clarity are her strong points.

Team Communication Process

All team members have blessed the others with the ability to nag as much as needed for everyone’s peace of mind that things are being done efficiently, thoroughly, and in a timely manner. On day one we exchanged emails, primary phone numbers, and home addresses are pending. We have designated the bulleting board at extrafancy.net as the main container for group knowledge. Any outside digital sources that must be referenced will be tagged with a link in the Bulleting Board thread, linking to the original documents that will be stored in the original “author’s” student-iat.ubalt.edu ftp account, so that we will use a standard repository (since it will be the student accounts, if necessary we may give each other access (Read Only ˜?) to our respective user accounts as a way of double-checking each other’s progress on parts of the deliverable that require a more independent type of work at some times. [Should we just designate one person’s user account as the working account for this project? It would be easier than having 3 databases to keep track of…] For any work done, whether independent or collaborative, strict and clear version control labeling will be discussed so that everyone has a concrete idea of how to document their changes. No old versions [Version i] will be deleted, changed versions will simply be tagged as [Version i+].

For example: ProjectPlan_v2.doc

Team Issue Management Process

Brutally clear and immediate communication should be used when any group member feels unclear (or thinks another team member may perhaps have unclear perceptions) in hopes of avoiding any team issues to be managed. However, if the need arises, any concerned team member should address the concern in a face to face setting where all group members are present (Weds. Night before or after class would be easiest). If a team member misses a deadline or is detrimentally unavailable to provide needed resources to the other members, the other team members will either try to call an impromptu physical meeting or conference call so that the issues can be discussed in a real-time setting. If the problem continues to escalate further, Dr. Summers will be consulted (with or without the team member [dependent upon the context of the issue at hand]) for advice on how to resolve the issue.


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Project Elements: Deadlines:

2/9 2/16 2/23 3/2 3/9 3/16 3/23 3/30 4/6 4/13 4/20 4/27 5/4 5/11Project Plan-Tasks by deliverable with workflow schedule outlineTeam member roles and responsibilitiesTeam communications processTeam issue management processDocumentation process and tools

Functional Specification-Strategy-Business GoalsAudience ResearchWebsite Research

Scope-Website ObjectivesScope description

Structure-IA- Organizational (categorization) and navigational schemes

Skeleton-Information Design-- wireframesNavigation design-- stiemapInteraction design

Prototype pagesUsability test results

Work Period Group DeadlineLarryJennifer Final DeadlineWilliam

Draft Deadline

Draft of


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Functional Specifications Strategy

Business Goals – University of Baltimore Web site Undergraduate Components

Part 1 – The University’s business goals regarding prospective undergraduates

Traditionally, the University of Baltimore’s students have been one or more of the following: older students, first generation college students, and/or recent immigrants. These students are often working adults who require a class schedule that will accommodate their work schedule. Members of these groups most often settle in the Baltimore area after achieving their undergraduate degree. They have always been “transfers” with a minimum of 24 credits, but typically 60 credits from a community college or other institution.

It is the goal of the University of Baltimore’s undergraduate programs to continue to support and accommodate these traditional groups with programs that are professionally relevant to the Baltimore region and scheduled to meet the needs of working adults seeking to improve themselves professionally.

While continuing to uphold the above mentioned goal, the University of Baltimore also wishes to establish a new goal of providing support to the other members of the University System of Maryland in consideration of the demands that will soon be placed on schools of higher learning to support the influx of the “Baby Boomer Echo Boom Generation,” or children of the Baby Boomers.

In order to provide this support, UB will need to extend its current program to offer the first two years of the baccalaureate degree. This extension will build upon the strengths of the existing programs at UB, which have always been Law, Business, and the Applied Liberal Arts. For these younger students who will be experiencing the University environment for the first time, the University plans to provide special programs that will ease them into this world. This will be achieved through “Learning Communities” in which small groups of students will take a series of classes and seminars together. This will provide the younger students with a social fabric that relates directly to their college experience. One of the first year seminars that the “Learning Community” will experience together is “Explore Careers.” This program will be a sampler of all the professional opportunities that can be afforded to them by the Law, Business, Public Affairs, and Technology components of the colleges of University of Baltimore.

When considering the needs of the undergraduate student, the University of Baltimore Web site must accommodate both the busy commuter with little time to spare beyond the social circles of the work place, home, and community and the needs of young students experiencing a new environment for the first time that may well be the center of their attentions. The designer must also consider that the “traditional” UB students are both locals and immigrants who will most likely seek to become a part of the local community and seek employment in the local job market.


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Part 2 –Our group’s goals in response to the current state of the Web site and how it impacts the University's business goals regarding prospective undergraduates

As stated on the previous page, the undergraduate user is either a high school student that is experiencing university life and city life for the first time, a recent immigrant that is acclimating to life in America, or a working adult with a busy schedule outside the university environment. Collectively, these circumstances require an interface between the student and the institution of learning that will accommodate the students’ lack of available time and need for fast orientation to a new environment. When considering these sets of circumstances and the university’s policy of providing a “paperless” admissions and registration system, this Web site project group must conclude that the current organization, navigation, and labeling system for the University of Baltimore Web site is unsuitable for the task at hand.

Our studies, thus far, show that the number one problem with the current Web site design is confusion. We propose to alleviate this problem through the introduction of continuity and branding consistently throughout the various subsites of the schools, sub-organizations, departments, and offices of the University of Baltimore. In addition to continuity, an intuitive representation of the organizational hierarchy will be addressed in the restructuring of the Web site architecture.

Even an intuitive hierarchy would not be easily understood by a newcomer without a labeling system that employs an informal and popular vocabulary. Our group proposes that the current internal jargon and obscure terminology used in the site labeling system be replaced with a vernacular form of vocabulary easily recognizable by individuals that are new to the University of Baltimore.

Having addressed the problems of organization and labeling this group finally turns to the problems of navigation. A global navigation system must be represented in a predominant and persistent form and location throughout all major pages of the University of Baltimore Web site. Visually confusing elements, such as menus that pop up in unexpected locations and navigation aids that are hard to locate, must be removed from the site. These confusing and convoluted elements will be replaced with a more direct and obvious approach.


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Audience Research

Looked for:

• Content that participants haven’t understood well • Content that could have belonged to more than one area • Alternative paths to content (for example, a list of all “how-to” articles could be created) • How different types of participants see information

Audience Research Goals:

• Needs • Persona Profiles • Related Information

Kip Card Sort: Kip is a professional Caucasian male in his upper-20s who has an undergraduate degree. When we tested Kip we had not yet added the “About Us” category to the closed card sort labels. Kip was apt to create his own subcategories if he didn’t agree with our labeling. He divided “Prospective Students” into the two subcategories of “Prospective Undergraduate Students” and “Prospective Graduate Students,” which supports our goal of redesigning the current undivided choice in the navigation into the more distinctly “audience with specific tasks”-based labeling. Kip also made an “Outlier” pile that could support our idea that UB’s site needs an “About Us” or “Visiting UB” global navigation heading, as was commonly found in our research of benchmarking academic Web sites.

Kip decided that the following content could belong to more than one area:

– “Academic Calendar” was placed under both “Current Students” and “Faculty and Staff” – “Auxilary Services” and “Office of Technology Services” were placed under both “Faculty and Staff” and “Office of

Administration” (changed from just “Administration”) – “Calendar of Events” (changed to “Events Calendar”) was placed under both “Current Students” and “Alumni” – “Campus Map,” “Financial Aid,” “Off Campus Programs,” “Scholarships” and “Student Center” were placed under both

“Prospective Undergraduate Students” and Current Students,” but were not placed under “Prospective Graduate Students” – “Centers and Institutes” was placed under both “Alumni” and “Faculty and Staff” – “Course Schedules,” Disability Support,” “Diversity Programs,” and “Langsdale Library” were placed under both “Current

Students” and “Faculty and Staff”


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– “Graduate and Doctoral Programs Information,” “Law Library,” and “Law School Application” were placed under both “Prospective Graduate Students” and “Current Students,” since current students might be interested in pursuing higher education at UB”

– “Graduate Application” and “Undergraduate Program Information” were placed under both “Prospective Undergraduates” and “Prospective Graduates”

– “History” was placed under both “Prospective Undergraduates” and “Alumni.

Carrie Card Sort:

Carrie is a Caucasian female in her mid to upper-20s who has a professional career. Carrie did not seem as comfortable as Kip did with the sorting task. In the interview questions before the current UB Web site task analysis, we gathered that Carrie did not have much experience with educational Web sites, whereas Kip has at least four years of higher education. As Carrie’s piles had little consistency with Kip and Peter’s general grouping and verbal reasoning for their sorting decisions, (and that we only have three users so far to compare) qualitative data seems to be more apparent and useful than quantitative data from the overall user-testing session. Carrie’s session was a great reminder that “intuitive” academic institutional jargon and categorizations based on characteristics somewhat unique to academia in general don’t transfer as smoothly as desired to the mental model of a user not familiar with the nature (for lack of a better word at the moment) of higher education. Carrie, although not a “power-user” of academia knowledge, does not fit into the lower extreme of the user population; quite the contrary, she has a professional job. Carrie merely seemed unfamiliar with the academic jargon and tended to place any term she was unable to intuitively categorize into the “Administration” pile—a choice quite understandable coming from a user whose mental model is more attuned to corporate jargon, where most miscellaneous organizational functions possibly would be generally categorized under administration.

Peter Card Sort: Peter is a 25-yr old African American male with an undergraduate degree who currently works as a graphic designer and desktop publisher. During Peter’s Camtasia session with the current UB Web site, Peter had trouble locating labels in the local navigation. As Peter is a desktop publisher and graphic designer, he often pointed out inconsistencies in the Web site’s fonts, local navigation background colors, and contextual label coloring. Text in the local navigation changes from white to black when a user rolls over it with the mouse; the black text seems easier to read than the white.

The Office of Humans Resources subsite has multiple levels of navigation displayed horizontally across the screen; this was often confusing to Peter when he was given the task of locating certain information about a job vacancy, and he had no mental model of where he was in the Human Resources subsite hierarchy, as it was not visually apparent. I also noted that the “Click here for current vacancies” may not be beneficial if a user was using a screen reader that only read links, the link being “Click here.”


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Recommendations for further action:

All three users had a hard time categorizing terms that were UB or academic jargon, such as “Academics Outcomes Assessment” or “Office of the Provost” (no one knew what provost meant) and terms whose granularity was very broad, such as “email” or counseling services.” Clicking on “email” could easily either 1) call up a mailto function that allows the user to send out an email, 2) link to a directory of emails, or 3) in this case, serve as a portal to current student and faculty email accounts. “Counseling services” consistently caused problems, as users thought it referred to services for students having academic or personal problems; for the purposes of our card sort and test session the term was actually used in the context of admissions counselors—a grouping that wasn’t not found to be intuitive.

Carrie’s session may lead us develop a persona that represents the future UB prospective undergraduate students—those who have neither had previous exposure to either a community college nor transferred from a four year institution. This persona could either be person straight out of high school or someone who is returning to school after some time in the workforce. Either way, the main focus of this persona will be making sure the navigation and labeling support mental models more accustomed to ways of organizing this type of content that are different from the typical academic content-organization style. This also reiterates our general consensus that many labels need to be redone so that they may “stand alone” as a natural representative of their navigational and definitive value, as a user’s context may not support the context of the label on the Web site.

Peter’s session highlighted some key interface design problems, a few of which were already mentioned. Some further suggestions include:

• Making headers and contextual links different colors on a page, rather than having the colors coordinate on the page, but are inconsistent amongst different pages unnecessarily.

• Information stating that UB is an upper division university could be displayed more prominently for the sake of high school students, at least until if and when the university changes to a four-year institution.

• The Search box could be bigger, or more prominently displayed to aid user’s in noticing the options of both browsing and searching.

Aside from supporting the needs of Kevin’s initial request, the user research highlights that we can make no assumptions about our user population, as UB prides itself on being accessible to anyone who’s interested in pursuing a higher form of education, regardless of their educational background, ethnicity, age, or context in general. Therefore, if a user is willing to pursue UB, then UB must make its Web site as amenable to as wide of a range of prospective students as possible. Labels, organization, and navigation need to accommodate multiple audiences, tasks, and mental models. A good way to do this is rework UB’s site to incorporate subsites that cater to certain audience/task hybrids. For our scope, this means we’ll focus on reworking the navigation, organization, and labeling for a primary persona: transfer student from either a community college or 4-year academic institution, similar to Kip and Peter, and a secondary persona so the UB redesign can be more amenable to accommodating user needs after it becomes a 4-year university: a prospective student either directly out of high school or a prospective student returning to school after some time in the workforce.


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Personas

Primary

Meredith Johnson

20 / female / single / born and raised in Baltimore, MD

“I know UB’s the right place for me, now all I want to do is get this application stuff out of the way so I can start thinking about my first semester.”

Meredith’s about to complete her Associates Degree in Mental Health/Human Services from The Community College of Baltimore County. Meredith has always loved helping people and also has a natural knack dealing with people at their worst, so she’d eventually like to run a hospice for the terminally ill. Meredith’s heard great things about UB’s undergrad program in Health Systems Management, so UB is definitely high on her list of schools she’s thinking about transferring to. Meredith lives with her mother and younger brother Derek. The family shares a Dell desktop purchased in 2003, but she has trouble getting to use it for anything more than occasional online research for homework assignments since Derek is always online playing computer games. When Meredith isn’t at school, work, or helping out her mom with chores she enjoys going to movies with her friends or out whatever club is playing the best and latest underground dance music. Since Meredith earns spending money by working part-time as a receptionist at Mercy Hospital, when she’s at work she usually only uses the computer for running the hospital’s applications for tracking patients—not much time for surfing since she’s constantly answering incoming phone calls. Meredith is pretty confident that she wants to apply to UB’s program since the campus is only a mile from her house and part-time job at the hospital. All she hopes is that she’ll have enough time to get all of the “paperwork” done and sent in before the application deadline.


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Secondary

Raymond Chase 42 / male / married / White Marsh, MD—originally from West Virginia “It’s time I started dipping into this huge need for accountants my boss keeps talking about. I think I know enough about it, I just need to go ahead and get this degree.”

Raymond has been the office manager of the White Marsh Jiffy Lube for the last 10 yrs. After graduating from high school, Raymond became a mechanic and eventually worked his way up the ladder. Raymond lives in White Marsh with his wife, Janet, and two sons, Jeff and Timothy, who are both in middle school. When at work Raymond uses a 2001 Gateway desktop; if he’s not keeping track of employees in Excel or keeping track of customer’s accounts, he pretty much only uses the internet to check ESPN.com or to email his wife at work to cut down on his cell phone bill. For a while Raymond has been thinking about changing careers, and he’s interested in becoming a certified professional accountant. He’s always been pretty good at balancing the books at his company; he’s even helped a few of his friends with their taxes. Raymond and Janet have enough money saved that Raymond can go back to school, so now’s the perfect time to get the ball rolling. Since Raymond’s already past his prime (or so says Janet), he really wants to go to a school where he’s not the only old guy in all of his classes. After asking around and doing a little Web surfing on his own, Raymond’s interested in applying to UB since they offer a lot of classes at night and on the weekend. Raymond’s a little nervous about getting back into learning since it’s been so long, and he’s hoping that he can find a helpful person to help him figure out how to apply if he gets frustrated with the Web site, after all, he grew up without a computer and he hasn’t trusted one since.


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Web site Research

Organization

Most entities of UB, including schools, organizations, departments, and offices, have their own website out side the main UB site.

Continuity of design/branding is lost

User becomes confused as to where they are, i.e. are they still on the UB site?

Information becomes redundant

Information formatted, organized differently on each sub site

The UB site is riddled with granularity of information mismatch problems

Clicking on a link in the local navigation instigates one of five results

o Block of text containing some contextual links for further navigation

o Block of text with and added secondary local navigation

o Block of text and a replaced local navigation

o Link navigates to an external site, like mentioned previously

o Link navigates to page in another section of the global navigation

Hierarchy Problems

Local navigation sometimes navigates across the hierarchy in unintuitive ways

Hierarchy represented in the navigation does not match the hierarchy of the actual file structure of the site

o Sometimes links navigate up when the interface indicates that they are navigating down.


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Labeling

Vague terminology and internal jargon are used through out the site

UB@Glance

Campus resources

o This link seems to be a dumping ground for misfit content

Counseling services

o Seems as if this label indicates guidance counseling services, when it really means personal counseling (mental health,

public speaking?, etc.)

Sometimes a single label in a different local navigation will navigate to different places

o There are three possible outcomes when click on a library link (Langsdale, Law, etc.)

Goes to the libraries external site

Goes to an internal library site

Goes to an internal library site for that particular library

Sometimes, two different labels navigate to the same place

o Contact us, and Directories

Navigation

The global navigation is difficult to find and use.

The visual hierarchy is bad—users find it hard to find, and end up using secondary global navigation or local navigation before

they find the primary global navigation

The roll over is confusing— users try to move the mouse to click on things in the roll over.

Secondary global navigation is different on the home page than the rest of the site

The entire site relies heavily on contextual links

Search doesn’t always give relevant results


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Scope

Web site Objectives and Scope Description

Addressing the issues contained in the Strategy report, our team will propose the following changes to the UB website.

NAVIGATION

Global Navigation

Increase this navigations visibility by locating it just underneath the logo, separating it visually from the colors of the logo field.

Increase the visual hierarchy of the navigation by making it more visually prominent in comparison to other elements on the page.

Highlighting of a global navigational heading will occur when the user is browsing information under that particular heading,

which will help to orient the user as to his whereabouts.

Local Navigation

The roll over effect that is triggered by mousing over the global navigation will be eliminated. Better labeling and information

organization will eliminate the need for this user-error prone trick.

A consistent secondary navigation system will be located on the left hand side of the screen.

Include links in the secondary navigation that are local to the global navigational heading in which they are contained.

Implement an expanded secondary navigation on the home page, which will facilitate users to navigate to commonly visited

portions of the site.

Contextual Links

Eliminate the heavy reliance on contextual links for site navigation. Again, better labeling and information organization will

eliminate the need for their heavy use.

Contextual link will still be used in situation where it makes sense to do so.

LABELING

Improve the information scent-- revamp the labeling system to better reflect the content contained under the label.


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o This will include both the global and local navigational systems

Eliminate ‘jargoned’ labels where possible.

Eliminate similar labels that navigate to different pages in the site

o i.e. Labels that contain the word ‘libraries’ can currently connect to different pages on the site.

Eliminate differing labels that navigate to the same place

o i.e. ‘contact us’ and ‘directories’

ORGANIZATION

Make important content located on external UB sites available on the main site

o Incorporate detailed information on programs offered by the big three schools: Merrick School of Business, Yale Gordon

College of Liberal Arts, and the School of Law

o Keep this information organized on the main UB site in a consistent manner

Eliminate information granularity problems by revamping the organizational structure of the major portions of the site

Revamp the hierarchical structure through better organization of information

Eliminate most of the cross-hierarchical navigation contained in the secondary navigation

o When cross navigation of the hierarchy is necessary, it will be done in a consistent manner (through contextual links, etc.)

Suggest that file structure of the server match that of the information hierarchy of the site

SUGGESTED CONTENT

Create section on the site for the new ‘Learning Communities’ Program that will coincide with the implementation of the first two

years of baccalaureate study at UB.


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Content Requirements

High Level Requirements

• Official UB subsites must be on UB servers • University of Baltimore branded logo must always be visible, preferably in the upper left corner • Standard UB Web links located at the top of the Web page: Search, MyUB, News & Events, Contact Us, etc. • All pages and sub-sites must contain:

o Link to the UB homepage via UB-branded logo or text link o Local-navigation links organized down the left margin of the Web page o Local subsite unit name (school, college, institute, organization) uniformly displayed throughout o Mailing address, phone, fax (when applicable).

• All official pages are covered by the UB search engine • To insure appropriate coverage, include search engine META tags in pages • The University of Baltimore and all UB Web sites must comply with applicable local, state, and federal laws including copyright laws • Unit heads are responsible for deciding whether or not to link to personal homepages from official department pages. • Footer Disclaimer: Any links to sites outside of UB do not imply endorsement by UB.

Administrative Units (Recommended additional information)

• Service-oriented information that would be considered valuable by users ( faculty, staff, students, visitors, alumni, and prospective students)

• Staff information, Events and Calendars, Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Academic Units (Recommended additional information)

• Current semester offerings with link to schedule • Faculty/staff information

Update Information

• Dated material should be removed as soon as possible • Review/update all pages at least once per year (for events, update at least once a month)


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Content Assessment

See Content Inventory, spreadsheet that lists information such as:

• What content objects will be developed • The type of each content object and a brief description • Which content objects are new and have to be developed • Who will develop each new content object • Which content objects exist in some form already • Which form the existing content is in now • Who is responsible for each content object • The level of importance for each content object.

*This information will be submitted as a separate document, at a later date.

The Content Assessment lists:

• Key content categories or descriptions • Content’s relative priority level to the overall project • Whether all content is to go-live simultaneously or in separate releases/stages • Key stakeholders for each • Other factors, such as environmental/market timing issues. .


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Structure

Organizational (Categorization) and Navigational Schemes

Larry


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Skeleton

Information Design – Wireframes

Larry


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Search Audience Topic Functional

Home

Prospective Students

Current Students Faculty and Staff AlumniAdministrative Offices

Academic Programs

Libraries and Research

UB Jobs Give to UBVisitor Information Apply Online

Academic Programs

Admissions Criteria

Transfer Credits

Tuition and Fees

Financial Aid

Application Deadlines

Admissions Counsilors

Registraion for Classes

Honors Programs

International Students

UB Student Profiles

Undergraduate Learning

Communities

Student Handbook

Career Development

Student Government

Office of Technology

Services

Academic Calender

Register for Classes

Honors Program

Academic Resource

Center

Graduation

Training and Professional

Development

Career Center

Clubs and Organizations

Student Affairs Office

Student Center

Alumni Resources

Events and Programs

Volunteer Opportunities

Alumni Career Experts

Class Notes

Update Your Information

Board of Govenors

Committees

Give to UB

Forms

Compensation

Current Vacancies

Organizational Training &

Development

Contact Info

Employment & Labor Relations

Policies

Benefits

Graduate Application

Law Application

International Student

Application

Undergraduate Application

University Relations

Office of the Provost

Office of the Comptroller

Office of Government

Relations

Strategic Planning

Administrative Services

Office of the President

Campus Map

Baltimore Community

History of UB

Facts about UB

Location and Directions

Yale-Gordon School of

Liberal Arts

School of Law

Merrick School of Business

Law Library

Langsdale Library

Faculty & Staff Directory

Faculty Handbook

Academic Outcomes Assesment

Office of Procurement

Administrative Staff Counsil

Office of Technology

Services

Faculy Senate

University Council

Council of UB Staff

Site IndexSearch

SitePeople

MyUB Check Email Online Classes

Athletic Club

Public Safty

Disability Support Services

Housing

Health Services UB Campus

Services

Parking

Bookstore

Cafeteria

Pay Phones

Student Copiers

Vending Machines

Academic Calender

Student Center


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Usability Test Results

Bill


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Appendices and Tables

Appendix 1 – Office of the Provost Lower Division Academic Concept Paper

CREATING A FOUR-YEAR UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAM

AT THE UNIVERSITY OF BALTIMORE:

ADDRESSING THE CAPACITY PROBLEMS OF THE UNIVERSITY SYSTEM OF MARYLAND

University of Baltimore (UB) proposes to assist the University System of Maryland in addressing its capacity needs. The rapidly increasing number of Maryland students completing high school and desiring admission to college in the coming years poses a large and well-documented problem of access and capacity for the state’s system of higher education. Known for its innovation over decades, UB has some excess capacity during the daytime hours and is especially well positioned to help meet Maryland’s increasing demand for higher education by extending its current program to offer the first two years of the baccalaureate degree. We propose to do so in a way that builds on our special strengths in career-oriented programs and our city location.

Longer term, after the students from the baby boom echo graduate, the University of Baltimore’s expansion into a four-year institution will continue to serve Maryland by providing increased opportunities for state residents, including traditional UB target groups such as first generation college students, recent immigrants, and older students. We will seek to work with new immigrants and others who would benefit from a college education. This outcome is consistent with UB’s mission to provide “innovative education in law, business and the applied liberal arts to serve the needs of a diverse population.”

The vast majority of University of Baltimore’s students work and live in the state after graduation. UB was founded as a private four-year institution in 1925 and when it became public in 1975 began a transformation to an “upper division” university offering the third and fourth years of baccalaureate programs, along with advanced degrees in law, liberal arts and business. Currently, all of UB’s undergraduate students are “transfers,” having completed a minimum of 24 credits at other institutions. (More typically, a UB student enters with about half of the 120 credits needed to complete the baccalaureate degree.) The undergraduate curriculum is designed to support the programs in the Colleges of Business and Liberal Arts, both of which are notable for combining theory and practice to create meaningful, real-world solutions to 21

st century workplace and

community challenges. Many UB students are motivated by a desire for professional advancement and by civic awareness. A true reflection of Maryland’s diverse population, UB students are often working adults who pursue part-time programs in the late afternoon and evening hours and on weekends.


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Located in the city’s cultural district, UB is committed to making educational opportunity accessible to all students. At the nexus of highway, rail, and subway lines, UB is literally positioned to realize its vision of becoming a “living-learning laboratory at the center of the Baltimore renaissance.”

BASIC PRINCIPLES

A lower division program should both fit UB’s special character and opportunities and be distinctively different from the programs offered by other local colleges and universities, while responding to the state’s need to accommodate a growing college age population.

UB’s Target Student

• Focused – We are especially interested in serving career-minded students with aspirations in law, business, and the applied liberal arts. Our specialized, pre-professional programs like Human Services Administration, Forensic Science, and business majors with specializations in entrepreneurship and accounting serve students and the State of Maryland by providing focused programs in areas of great student interest and great employer need.

• Capable -- We will select students with intellectual capacity and drive for success at the baccalaureate level. While reaching out to new high school graduates, we will continue to serve our traditional base of older students who balance education, family, and work. We are mindful of the uneven preparation of college-bound students. That, coupled with our growing awareness of variation in social and emotional readiness for college moves us employ effective means to help our entering students successfully transition to college. Where necessary we will tap the resources and expertise of UMUC and our community college partners in addressing student needs. Among other measures, placement tests will be used to properly assign students.

We will treat the first year overtly as a transition from high school to college. We wish to involve students in activities that make clear the centrality of critical analysis, inquiry and self-management to the undergraduate educational experience. Courses will feature learning focused on problems with which students, singly or in groups, must grapple by framing questions; gathering, analyzing and synthesizing information; and proposing solutions. We will pay particular attention to developing communication skills. Classes for first year students will feature specially designated faculty who have interest and expertise with those new to college.


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• Invested in the Community – Continuing a proud tradition comprised of nearly 80 years and tens of thousands of alumni, we envision educating Maryland students from Baltimore City and the five surrounding counties who will likely stay in the area and strengthen our communities. The career-minded education students receive at UB will make them professionally relevant in our region and beyond.

The UB Experience Taking full advantage of UB’s location in the heart of Baltimore and its experience educating the state’s professional workforce, the lower division initiative will focus on career preparation as it uses the region as resource. Our innovative curriculum will engage faculty and students together with outside partners in the opportunities and challenges distinctive to urban areas, both in the United States and around the world. By focusing on UB’s existing academic programs in exciting relevant fields like Management Information Systems, Simulation and Digital Entertainment, and Jurisprudence, students will gain valuable experience in career exploration and professional networking while learning about the range of resources in the Baltimore area available for both professional and personal growth and development. Pre-Professional, Career Focused

• UB’s career focus sets it apart from other colleges. That focus will be apparent to entering students as they explore the world of the professions through an innovative first year program, “Explore Careers.” Here they will gain meaningful exposure to a range of timely professional options in four areas: Law and Society, Business, Urban and Public Affairs, and Technology. “Explore Careers” will be tied to the first year curriculum, allowing every entering student the opportunity to learn about current workplace opportunities for which UB offers meaningful preparation. For example, building on the strength of UB’s Criminal Justice major, some students will have the opportunity to participate in ride-along with Baltimore City and County police officers, while other students will work with faculty from the Community Studies and Civic Engagement major to explore local and national nonprofit agencies and foundations. Business students will work on projects with small businesses and organizations like the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and Goodwill Industries. Students will also begin the process of education for life, becoming familiar with trends in the world of work and the need for workforce flexibility and agility.


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Learning Communities

• The first year experience at UB will be defined by Learning Communities in which small cohorts of students take a series of seminars and classes together. Students will be taught by faculty members selected for the excellence of their teaching. Faculty will be comprised of both current UB professors and new instructors hired for their expertise with lower division students. Our committee’s fact finding among national experts suggests that learning communities provide the support and intense learning environment that entering UB students will need to succeed in our pre-professional and region-focused first year program.

• Each student will take two courses per semester with their Learning Community, in which enrollment will be capped at 35 students per section. Students will therefore be assured of personal attention in a small class setting. “Explore Careers” tied to a lower division course will constitute one semester’s Learning Community classes. In the second semester, the Learning Community offerings will be connected to the exploration of various majors while allowing for exposure to more traditional humanities and social science fields like government, history, English and psychology. Our goal for these Learning Community seminars is to interweave interdisciplinary and disciplinary exploration so that the General Education requirements can be informing the student’s major and vice versa.

Region as Resource

• UB’s pre-professional focus and experiential orientation also will draw on our wide range of partnerships with governmental agencies, businesses and non-profit organizations. This is especially appropriate given both our location and our focus on business, law, and the applied liberal arts. UB’s long experience in modeling collaborative practice is apparent in our university centers like the Jacob France Institute and the Schaefer Center for Public Policy and in majors such as Health Systems Management and Corporate Communication.

• As a dedicated partner of the University System of Maryland, UB will work collaboratively with sister institutions such as UMUC to make available lower division offerings in areas like laboratory science. By drawing upon both UMUC’s and UB’s own expertise in web-based curriculum, we will develop a program that while flexible and attractive, demands academic rigor.


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A UB Graduate

• In our effort to shape reflective practitioners who are able to give back to their communities, a student’s UB experience will be infused with civic engagement and experiential opportunities. Students will be encouraged to develop habits of thinking about the meaning of their experiences in light of what they have learned in the classroom and the ethical/moral dimensions of what they observe and do. Faculty, community partners, and alumni will serve as the connecting links between students and the world of the professions. To ensure student success, UB will have an outcomes-learning approach that employs best practices in the fields for which we educate students.

• Our image of the ideal graduate is a person who possesses the knowledge and skills to enter a career field and also the intellectual capacities to pursue that work with critical insight, self-awareness, and appreciation of the full range of considerations that influence and flow from their actions. Theory and practice will be interwoven with experiences in civic engagement to produce reflective practitioners who enhance not only their professions but their communities, as well. They will also have the flexibility to adapt to the more frequent career changes that the economy of the future is likely to demand.

Market Feasibility

An important aspect of this initiative is to determine demand on the part of graduating high school students in Maryland, specifically in the Baltimore metropolitan area, in applying as freshmen to the University of Baltimore. There are two areas that need to be addressed: first, the demand by graduating high school and adult students for an education at a four-year institution; and second, whether UB would be considered an attractive option for these students based on this proposed academic concept.

• Capacity: According to the Maryland State Department of Education, the baby boom echo -- children of the baby boom generation—are beginning to graduate from high school and to anticipate attending higher education at new record high levels. It is projected that there will be close to 5,223 new students wanting to enroll in four-year institutions in the Baltimore metropolitan area by 2011.

• Market Survey: Our goal is to survey the marketplace to determine whether our proposed academic concept would be attractive to potential students. We are conducting a market survey that will target students who have scored from 80-125 on their PSAT. Additionally, we are targeting students with this PSAT score range who live in Baltimore City and Baltimore, Howard, Anne Arundel, Harford, Prince George’s, Montgomery and Carroll counties. Our goal is to have 1150 completed surveys and to have the survey results and executive summary available by mid-April.


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ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE

All first year students will be admitted to UB, rather than to the School of Business or the College of Liberal Arts. While students may indicate an “interest” in particular majors, they will not be required to formally apply for a major until the end of the sophomore year. Before entering a particular major, students will have the opportunity to structure their curriculum in preparation for it by taking a range of 100 and 200 level courses in their area of interest, in addition to other General Education classes.

Lower division advising will be centralized, with all first and second year students advised by a team of specially trained advisors who have a deep and abiding interest in, and awareness of, the needs of entering college students. Students will enjoy dual advising as they continue to receive information about the first two years while accessing more specialized major and career advice from advisors in their potential area of study.

The Provost’s Office will oversee the first two years at UB.


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Appendix II – Phone Interview with Anthony Butler, UB Admissions Counselor

A lot of the problems that prospective students run into on UB’s Web site are experienced when they interact with the Peoplesoft software that provides tracking for admissions data (i.e., dates forms need to be submitted, financial aid status, etc.).

What is your current role?

Admissions Counselor Anthony Butler splits the majority of his time working on undergraduate recruitment 1/3, in-person appointments 1/3, and evaluating transfer credits 1/3 of the time for about 1/3 of the undergrad applicants. Add in an extra 1/3 (thus he works 4/3rds of the time ☺) for open house, student orientation, and external relations.

The Major Question Admissions gets from Prospective Undergrads (PUs) is:

How do my credits transfer?

Some learned students who’ve done a lot of research have own line of ?s (I want to know about A, B, and H.)

Some know very little about UB and transfer process. Transfer of credits process is the same for all undergrads, except for the Forensic transfer process is a competitive admission: accepting 50 students only in fall, not GPA-based.

Process:

Send in transcript, 60 credits can be accepted from community colleges, 90 from 4 yr. (assuming 20 cred of upper div.)

User Issue:

Sometimes (as UB is a big Web site) some info managed by depts. Independently of UB -- occasionally students see process explained inconsistently in department content vs. how process is explained by Admissions Web page.

** out of date info. (MBA option to do specialization )

Students find info fine, but the info they find is sometimes out of date or inconsistent.

How long have you been with UB?

11/2 and then before Master in Pub Design year in b.w in PR and grant writing for Non-profit.


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Do prospective students make use of the “Questions or Comments” field in the application request form on the Admissions page to ask for help often? If so, what are their typical needs?

This form automatically goes to UB Communications Center (down the street near parking garage), the department that sends out all the bulk mailings and incoming inquiries. Darlene Simpkins, Communications Counselor, along with her part-time staff, checks the online mailbox. When PUs fill out the info request form, that form populates to Darlene’s email. A lot of PUs use the form, but not many use questions or comments field; they tend to be more comfortable emailing the Admissions counselors directly. If Darlene can answer any concerns she will, but if its more Admissions counselor-oriented, she sends it out to Admissions people. Admissions answers 5 or 6 emails each through the web site personal emails, another 3 to 5 to admissions. (Jenny lost train of thought here) Enter in info to Peoplesoft for prospective students and filling the orders. Admissions has a specific timeline by which they interval what info goes out to PUs when. As soon as info is requested, PUs get viewbook, brochure letter, and fin aid info.

What is the main line of contact used by prospective students in need of assistance? Email, form fields, phone, person to person, postal mail?

Definitely email. To answer most questions, Anthony pastes links to Web info.

Good 2/3 communicates through email. Phone second. Occasionally walk in off street.

Two general types of emails sent by PUs:

(1) Open ended I want info about your school. Anthony has template for these.

A lot of inquiries from freshmen.

(2) I have these 10 questions da da da…

Is there anything about how the Admissions page is integrated into UB's site as a whole that seems to work very well for your Office's needs? Are there things about your Office's page you'd like to see change? If so, can you explain why?

Works fine. Once they get to Admissions.

One thing to change: Prominently mention the fact that we are a transfer university only. Screen out inquiries, then again we have students planning to go to comm. College and you don’t want to send them away. Explain what upper division means. There is a freshmen letter, reinstate content online. Have limited high school fairs, community high school fairs put on by the community college.

Better than average conversion rate of applicants to admitted students (UB is not a safety school, and they’re not applying to 5 other schools).


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Not traditional school not concerned with ranking. Whole reason UB exists is because of all the good community colleges in MD and they students wanted more…

Is there any Admissions oriented info online that is important for prospective undergrads that seems hard for them to locate without your office's assistance? Do you have a lot of redundant custormer service questions, problems, and feedback from prospective students that have visited the site?

Kevin: Customer Relationship Management, and The Portal and there’s software called “Portal” ie, Amazon personalization. Want UB to be like that.

Peoplesoft: Lookup search button is the thing PUs have the hardest time with. *Does your department communicate often with UB's Web master? If so, about what kinds of issues?

Does UB plan to change its focus in the near future so that it can be a four year university?

If we don’t lose the uniqueness it’s a good idea. At this point in proposal stage, no changes before 2006. From recruiting standpoint this is early, like to recruit 2 years in advance. If we focus on accelerated programs that a real buzz. And shorten time for masters. Just need to have something to market.

Unified front on branding.!!! Could be stronger.

Are there any university/college sites that you wished UB's site were more like?

Anne Arundel Comm College Web site: http://www.aacc.cc.md.us (layout) always find what he’s looking for.

Constantly looking for directions.

How you get here should be prominent link!!!

Apply Button!!! Apply to UB? Online application and one to the paper application. And a third to request info mailed. On Main Page put Apply to UB.

http://www.cecil.cc.md.us/financial-aid/index.asp

Standards consistent with competing colleges.

On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being worst and 10 being best, how would you rate your opionion of UB's Web site? The Admission's page?


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7, 6—doesn’t jump out and grab you and just make you … should be more flashy. Info very visible, but needs a big picture of happy students. Complaints from applicants whose status is stored on myUB, peoplesoft.

What do you think a typical prospective student's rating would be?

Generally good experience.


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Appendix III – Standard UB Admissions Response Letter to Inquiring High School Students

Dear High School Student:

Thank you for your interest in the University of Baltimore (UB). High school students, like you, who take initiative and plan a sound course for their future are in demand at the University of Baltimore. While you are not ready for admission to UB at this time, we hope that you will be eligible soon. We hope to keep in touch with you and here’s why:

UB IS AN UPPER-DIVISION UNIVERSITY

UB is unique because it is an upper-division university, one of only a handful in the entire country and the only one of its kind in Maryland. This means that we admit only transfer students at the sophomore, junior and senior levels. For this reason, all of our students begin their college careers at another college or university and then transfer to UB to complete their bachelor’s degree.

MARYLAND’S TRANSFER UNIVERSITY

University of Baltimore is often referred to as “Maryland’s Transfer University” because all of our students have transferred from other schools. While all students will have completed their freshman year, many complete either their sophomore year or an associate degree before transferring to UB. Students transfer from both two-year community colleges and four-year universities. The State of Maryland has an articulation system called ARTSYS that enables a student to plot out his or her entire college career in their chosen major from any of the Maryland public two-year colleges to the University of Baltimore.

HOW MANY COLLEGE CREDITS DO I NEED BEFORE I CAN ATTEND UB?

University of Baltimore can admit students who have completed at least 24 college credits. Please refer to the enclosed brochure for required grade point averages.

SCHOLARSHIPS

Students have always been attracted to the University of Baltimore because of our extensive scholarship opportunities. UB has three major scholarship programs that are available to students who meet the academic requirements. The Wilson, the Phi Theta Kappa and the Dean’s Scholarships make finishing a bachelor’s degree very affordable for academically talented students. Scholarships are available to entering junior level students who have earned a minimum of 56 transferable credits.


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Thank you again for your interest. University of Baltimore welcomes your inquiries and questions. Please feel free to contact me to discuss how to make the University of Baltimore a part of your academic future. I can be reached by telephone at 410-837-4777 or toll free 1-877 ApplyUB, or visit our website at www.ubalt.edu/admissions.

Sincerely,

Jennifer L. Hankin

Acting Associate Director of Admissions


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http://www.ubalt.edu/admissions

Appendix IV – User Testing Script

“Thanks so much for helping us this evening. We’re currently involved in the initial stages of redesigning the University of Baltimore’s Web site. In order to make it as easy to use as possible, we’d like to get some input from people similar to those who will be using it, and that’s why we’re speaking to you now; future versions of this Web site will incorporate any findings we uncover here today. And don’t mind Larry, he’s just going to be taking some notes for me.

INITIAL CLOSED CARD SORT:

Here’s how it works. In front of you is a stack of cards. Those cards represent the content and functionality for this (web site, product, intranet). Try and sort the cards into groups that make sense to you. We’re interested in seeing how you would organize it into groups you would expect to find things in.

So we can learn as much as possible from this, try to think out loud when you’re sorting your card, that way if you have trouble we may be able to offer some suggestions. Feel free to ask questions during the exercise if you feel the need. I can’t guarantee that I can answer them during the exercise, but I’ll do my best to answer them when you’re finished.

IF THEY GET STUCK:

• You are can make sub-groups if you feel that’s appropriate. • If you feel something is missing, you can use a blank index card to add it. • Additionally, if a label is unclear, feel free to write a better label on the card. • Finally, if you think something doesn’t belong, you can make an “outlier” pile.

TASK WALK-THROUGH CARD SORT:

Great! Now that we have your piles, I’d like you to point and talk me through how you would go about doing a few things.

• Can you show me where you put the Undergraduate Application card? • How would I find information on Course Schedules? • If I were interested in getting a job at UB, how would I find information relating to this?

Thanks!

INFORMATION SEEKING TASK

(Bundle up the piles of cards on the table so only the top level is showing.)


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Okay, can you now tell me where you put:

• The Financial Aid card? • The Contact a Counselor Card? • The Law School Application • Registration?

ONLINE TASK ANALYSIS

Thanks, that was very helpful. Now we’re going to spend a few minutes on the current UB Web site. Most importantly, please keep in mind that there are no right or wrong answers to any questions – we’re testing the web site and not you, so please continue to just talk out loud about whatever comes to mind.

• First of all, can you tell me how many hours a day or week you spend on the internet? • What do you usually do online? • Have you been to an educational institution’s Web site before? • How long ago was that? • Okay, here we go:

o Show me where to find out about events happening at UB this week. o Tell me something about UB’s athletic club. o Pretend you’re a carpenter. You’re friend, another carpenter, told you that UB has an opening for a Carpenter Aid. You’d

like to apply for this job, so you come to UB’s web site. Where would you go from here? o How would you get to the home page from here? o Before you click on a link, can you tell me which one on this page you’d select to get directions to UB’s campus if you’re

planning a visit? Can you tell me why you chose that link? Before you click on this link, can you tell me what you expect to find? Is this what you expected? Now what would you do?

o Pretend you’re a 16-year old sophomore in high school and you really want to design video games when you grow up. You’re best friend’s cousin is in UB’s Simulation and Digital Entertainment Program, and they say it’s the greatest! You’re dying to apply to, so you go to UB’s web site. Show me what you do from here…

o Can you tell me if there’s anything special about admissions requirements for this program? o How would you get to the home page from here? o Pretend you’re a community college student and you’re interested in transferring to UB to take junior and senior level,

third and fourth year, classes. Take a look around and tell me all you see and find that you think would be helpful information for you.


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o You’d like to think it over, so you want to download the undergrad application so you can look at it own your own time later. Can you go ahead and do that for me?

o You’ve decided you’d like to go ahead and apply online. Can you try that for me? o How would you get to the home page from here? o Does the Business school offer programs for undergraduates and graduates? o Pretend you’re interested in applying to UB’s Health Systems Management Program, but you want to take a look at what

classes they’re offering this semester, so you can get an idea of how you might be able to plan out your future schedules. o Can you show me what time and day PRIN OF HEALTH CARE MGMT I is offered in Spring 2005? o How would you get to the home page from here?


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Appendix V – Deleted Sections of Revised Final Project

Functional/Feature Specifications

What will users do on the UB Web site?

To focus on our project’s primary scope, the main functions and features that will be addressed are those that our research has deemed most applicable to the tasks and needs of the prospective undergraduate students, exhibited by our primary and secondary personas. A prospective undergraduate student’s (PUS’s) UB web experience will be influenced by the following factors:

• Is this the student’s first visit to the UB Web site, are they just browsing for information on potential colleges and universities, which we can call an information gathering visit? A positive outcome of this visit would be the PUS requesting more information from the admissions office.

• Is this a returning PUS, whose goal is to show interest in UB by submitting some type of application to UB; we can call this an applying-visit.

• Is this a PUS that has already applied and is seeking feedback on the status of her application? We can call this a feedback-oriented visit.

What features are required to support the tasks the users will do?

The main interactive tasks that a PUS will do on the UB Web site are:

• Request information from the admissions office or from particular schools or programs or request a paper application • Apply to UB online and track the status of their application process by means of the Peoplesoft application.

Other features that must be supported will include:

• Allowing the users to search the UB Web site with a search engine run with an underlying thesaurus, (at least with synonym rings and authority files)

• Allowing the users to search the UB faculty/staff directory by a “people search” feature • Letting users view and browse academic calendars and course schedules • Login to myUB and the underlying Peoplesoft application • Ability to directly access Web content through the site map, which include links to subsites and content that is organized to mirror the

hierarchy of the overall web site.


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• Multiple navigation paths through the content, with labels showing discrimination between visited and unvisited links based on whether the user has taken a certain path.

• Seamless navigation for user when traveling among UB main site and UB sub sites and all UB contracted external applications (i.e., Peoplesoft, Outlook[or whatever email application we’re using]) by using consistent graphical user interface skins to brand content by particular audience/task focus.

• Utility navigation link to Apply to UB on homepage and all skinned PUS pages (this was number one on Anthony Butler—UB Admissions Counselor’s—wishlist for changes to UB site) to take PUS directly to UB online application launch page.

What information do they need to do their tasks?

All users, although particularly PUS, need quick and easy access to their needed information, which means a labeling, navigation, and organizational scheme sensitive to the PUS mental model, preferred terms, and previous user experience in the educational Web domain. Top-level labels need coherent and predictable “residue” as to the type of content that will be found underneath, and the user-experience navigation path needs to reinforce that the user is getting closer to the desired information granularity by each subsequent label-link click.

As it is not in our scope to change the functions and features of the Peoplesoft application, the most we can do to ease the user’s experience hereon is provide clear access to the Peoplesoft application, possibly with a thorough help content, where guides could be used to show how to navigate through some of Peoplesoft’s less intuitive interactive elements.

For a PUS during an information-gathering visit:

• Find information on o particular undergraduate degree offerings, programs, courses, specialized info (i.e., international student, disabled student,

high school student) o admissions information (requirements, transfer process, admissions counselor contact information, admissions process

and deadlines) • Contact admissions counselor either by phone or snail-mail (put contact info in visible place) or by e-mail (counselor’s name or

department name active mailto link)—if mailto option is chosen, user will get feedback as to whether or not data transmission was successful or unsuccessful (to be discussed further in error handling section)

For a PUS during an applying visit:

• Find appropriate link to Admissions-Submit an Application-Undergraduate, then inform them that they must:


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o Request application packet by mail or download application (maybe add text letting user know that if they attempt to download with Mozilla browser that the pdf may run slowly if interacted with online—suggest that they download the pdf file to their desktop for easier use. When I downloaded it, the file size showed it was 386 kb, rather than the site listed 125k…)

o Download or complete online Maryland In-State Residency Status Application o Arrange for previously attended college to send two copies of official transcripts.

For a PUS during a feedback-oriented visit:

• Provide quick navigation to the myUB login for Peoplesoft, where the PUs can track the status of their application.

What features are required to support content?

• A dynamic database of all UB Web site and subsite content, updated and maintained in a timely manner • The Peoplesoft application • Template-based Web content style guides to promote consistency and maintain hierarchy and organization when new content is added

to any level


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Conceptual Models / Maps of Web site


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Error Handling Rules / Language for Functions / Features

On the current UB Web site, when the user clicks on the line to access the online Undergraduate application, the application appears in a pop-up window, with the title “Eapp Application,” with no means of back navigation to the main UB homepage. The url address shows that the application is embedded deep within the pesop-hrsa.ubalt.edu directory. The application would be more user-friendly if it either a) remained within the current window navigational schema (although the back button feature may be disabled due to the form nature of the interaction); or b) provide a UB label either in the title bar of the page or in the context area of the page to allow the user to link back to the last UB page visited, which would be the undergraduate admissions info page; or c) perhaps the most easily implementable of the choices— provide text somewhere in the content of the UB Undergrad Admissions info page explaining to the user that they will be directed to an outside application, and that they can easily navigate back to the UB site for application instructions and info by switching to the original window (somehow let the user know that now two browser windows are open and they need to toggle between the two; this provides support for low-level users whose experience may be hindered by the obtrusive window pop-up and back-navigation breakage.

Suggested Error Handling:

Instead of the current line at the beginning of the Application that says “Important: Read the instructions before completing this application,” we could provide a link reading “Application Instructions” that would open up a pop-up, scrollable window providing easy access to the instructions that the user can interact with while having the majority of the screen space still occupied by the application form.

The part of the form where the user is asked to specify his country of origin uses Peoplesoft’s signature search icon of the painfully unintuitive magnifying glass; the least we could do is expand the icon into a button and clickable field that also contains the explanatory text, “Lookup Country of Citizenship,” which currently only becomes visible when the user rolls over the icon and leaves the mouse there long enough to trigger the alt tag text. When the user does click the icon, the fears Peoplesoft Lookup screen appears. When we tested our three users with this interface as we asked them to lookup the meeting time of a current class, each user ran into extreme difficulty here, and each gave up as no feedback, guides, or error support was provided to help them make sense of this screen. As it is not included in our scope to redesign this function as it resides in the domain of Peoplesoft, we could at least provide a guide, easily done through Camtasia, showing how to interact with this lookup tool.

If the user is an international student, currently they are asked to provide the country of birth twice, which is redundant and makes them interact with the insidious Peoplesoft lookup tool again.

When the user is filling out the online application and he submits it without having filled in all of the required fields, the following error message appears: “Highlighted fields are required. (15,30) Enter data into the highlighted fields.” The form now has the required fields highlighted in red. However, the highlighting is not consistent, for when I filled in only my last name and nothing else, the form did not highlight required fields in the Local Mailing Address subsection.


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Suggested Error Handling:

“Navigate to the previous level” could be phrased in a more friendly and less imperative manner, such as a general pop-up error message stating “Oops! There seem to be some errors in your form; please scroll through the form and correct your information for any field that has hints shown in red text above the field.” Then, provide contextual error messages in red type above each pertinent field, explaining exactly what kind of data needs to be entered, and perhaps providing an example of what that data may look like. Exclude number codes such as (15,30) from error messages, as they are not pertinent to the user’s needs.

I then tested the form’s ability to handle the user entering in the wrong kind of information in the field (i.e., I entered “*#&%)#3” in the First Name field). The error message was “The First Name field can only contain letters and hyphens (‘-‘). Navigate to the previous level” Grammatical syntax is not consistent, as this error message was lacking an ending period.

The current online application does prevent a high school student by applying, as an error message pops up if the Previously Attended Academic Institution subsection is not completed, saying “There must be at least one previous school attended entered on the application. Navigate to the previous level.”

I filled out the online application up to the point where they asked for credit card information, and when I didn’t enter any in I got the message: “Your credit card was denied. Please try again. (40000,1)” The second time I attempted this I received the message, “Your credit card was denied. You may make one more attempt at successful payment. Should your transaction be unsuccessful, you will be logged out of the system. Thanks. (40000,1)” Then, after your third unsuccessful attempt, it sends you to the main Peoplesoft login screen. This may discourage some students who are having difficulty, especially if the difficulty is due to problems with international credit cards, etc.

Suggested error handling:

Perhaps the first error message could say: “I’m sorry, but your credit card was denied. Please double-check your information before resubmitting. If you need assistance, please contact a UB Admissions Counselor, as you will automatically be logged out of this application session after two more unsuccessful attempts.”

When the application has been successfully submitted, the feedback should be displayed telling the user that the submission was successful, and it should also outline what the user should expect next (i.e., “An Admissions counselor will contact you by email in 3-5 business days, Please periodically access your myUB account to check on the status of your application, etc).


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Content Inventory / Map / Model

Insert content inventory pdf


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Interaction Redesign :

Subsite Skinning:

UB subsites should all have the umbrella-uniformity of the global and local navigation. This would mean that sites such as http://business.ubalt.edu/ and http://www.ubalt.edu/hr/ would both have a prominent and consistently displayed search box in the upper right hand corner of the global navigation bar.

As stated previously in the Scope Section, contextual links should maintain stylistic consistency regardless of their location in the UB’s Web pages. The burgundy color for links used on the homepage could set the standard; nonclickable headers should not have the same font color as clickable links.

Search Features:

The Search Bar will no longer have the text “keywords” automatically displayed in the search field; instead, it will be a blank field where the user can enter their own preferred term. This term will be compared to the UB Web site thesauri, and results will be displayed in a manner that provides reinforcement for UB’s preferred term by

(1) Prominently displaying the term the user entered (i.e., “Your search results for “Transfer Application”)

(2) Then listing UB’s equivalent terms (based on synonym rings and authority files) as active links to different content choices

(3) If no results can be displayed, provide a link to the UB Sitemap.

The Search Results display page is cluttered and a bit overwhelming, providing information that has questionable value, and provides too many results. When “transfer” was entered into the search field, 270 results were displayed. A very thorough search system is employed by the College of William and Mary’s Web site, and can be seen at http://www.wm.edu/directory/index.php. Although the search feature seems to be run by an external provider, master.com, the search results display page’s basic layout should remain consistent with the rest of the UB site design.

If we are able to change the interface of the Search Results display page, we recommend moving the relevance scores, file size, depth, “Match Info” and “Show Parents” links to the Advanced Search page, as most users are not interested in these additional features.

To further augment the People Search feature (one of the suggested additional features shown in the William and Mary search link) We suggest programming the search function so that if a person’s name is typed into the general search field and NOT in the People Search field (which will automatically display only search results found in the People Directory), to operate an algorithm to display the person’s entry in the directory first,


May 4, 2005


http://business.ubalt.edu/

http://www.ubalt.edu/hr/

http://www.wm.edu/directory/index.php

which should also hold the rest of the results of the links where the person’s name is found (i.e., articles written by the person, other random things). This is suggested under the assumption that when a user searches for a person’s name, that the user would primarily want the person’s contact and directory information, moreso than other content in the Web site they may be associated with the person’s name. However, to address additional scenarios, we suggest adding these other contextual links in the person’s main directory listing that is called up through either the general or People Search, below the primary contact information, thus concentrating the person’s contextual links in a central and consistent manner.

Example of proposed People Search feature:

Search

Find People


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http://it.wm.edu/directory/people/

Appendix (insert proper number here) – User Research Prototype Testing Session Script

“Thanks so much for helping us this evening. We’re currently involved in the final stages of redesigning the University of Baltimore’s Web site.

In order to make it as easy to use as possible, we’d like to get some input from people similar to those who will be using it, and that’s why we’re

speaking to you now; future versions of this Web site will incorporate any findings we uncover today. Today we'll be looking at a prototype of the

new redesign of the UB Web site.

Because this is an early prototype, it won't look very fanc—as a matter of fact, it’s just paper.

Larry (gesturing towards Larry) will be playing the role of the computer tonight.

Just as you interact with a real computer using the screen and a mouse, you will interact with “Larry-the computer” through the pages of paper,

which will serve as the screen, and this pointer (holding up the object chosen to be the pointer) will be your mouse/cursor. We would like to know

what you think about the content of these pages and how it all works together, but visual design isn't an issue here.

Just let me be clear...we are testing the prototype.

We are not testing you. Therefore, there are no wrong answers.

Please feel free to talk out loud about what you are doing and why you are doing it.

This will help us in our evaluation of this Web site and it will make it easier for Jenny (gesturing to Jenny) to decide what is important as she takes

notes on this prototype test.

This should take no longer than 45 minutes.

Any questions?


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INITIAL QUESTIONS:

How Many Hours do you spend on the Internet?

What do you usually do online?

Have you been to an educational institution’s Web site before?

How long ago was that?

IF THEY GET STUCK:

If you feel something is missing, or something doesn’t belong, please let me know.

Additionally, if a label is unclear,feel free to write a better label on one of these “Post-it Notes”.

INFORMATION SEEKING TASKS TO BE COVERED

Undergrad program in Health Systems Management?

Apply online?

Transfer Information?

Visitor information, maps and parking?

Find out if UB has a Certified Public Accountant preparation program.

Tuition and Financial Aid?

Admissions Counslor?


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TASK WALK-THROUGH

O.K.! Now I’d like you to use your pointer to “Click” on the “Buttons” represented on the paper by text, and talk me through how you would go about doing a few things.

Okay, here we go:

A. Pretend you are interested in starting a career in Health Systems Management. Show me how you’d find out if UB offers an Undergraduate degree in this field.

B. Now, let's say you've found a program that you want to enroll in and you are ready to apply now. Show me how you would Apply Online.

C. Now, pretend you have acquired 48 credits at a Maryland Community College and you want to transfer those credits to UB. Show me where you would go to find out how to do that.

D. Let's say you have lived in Maryland most of your life but you've never ventured into the city of Baltimore. Show me where you’d find exactly where is the University of Baltimore? Show me where you’d find how to get there. Now show me where you’d look for information on where to park your car and how will you get from your car to your first class.

E. Okay, now lets switch to a different program of interest. Let's pretend you are mid-career and have been working in a garage. You have a high school education and some community college credits, but you have never pursued a college degree. You've been doing the bookkeeping at the garage you work at for the last few years, and you're pretty good at it. So, you think it would be a great career move to become a Certified Public Accountant. Using our paper Web site, investigate and see if UB offers some sort of program that would allow you to become a CPA.

F. Now that you have looked at the program offerings, how to apply online, and transfer your credits, you need to now how you will pay for your new classes. Look for information on TUITION and FINANCIAL AID.

G. You've learned quite a bit on your own, but you would like to talk to someone at UB one on one. Look for information about contacting an Admissions Counselor.


May 4, 2005


Documents

UB Site Redesign