Singapore Institute of Management
A unified university website, serving three key user needs.
Role:
UX Researcher and Designer
Activities:
Stakeholder interviews, landscape review, discovery interviews, personae, user journey, user flows, information architecture, wireframing, usability testing
Tools:
Miro, UXPin
Sections:
Summary, Understand, Ideate, Validate
01 / Summary
Project brief:
The Singapore Institute of Management (SIM) is shifting its focus from just undergraduate education to becoming a lifelong education provider that caters to all ages.
To achieve this, the new website aims to unify SIM’s three business arms into a single platform, offering a cohesive and efficient experience that meets the diverse needs of its users.
What was done:
Conducted a thorough landscape review of 57 websites to understand industry standards and identify opportunities for innovation.
Adapted the UX research process to the client’s needs, shifting from first-hand research to utilising secondary research and turning it into actionable insights.
Developed a Sort-and-Prioritise (HEART) methodology to test for user appeal and ensure alignment with user expectations.
Simplified the navigation by reducing excessive sub-levels and tree-tested the Information Architecture with 60 respondents, yielding successful results.
Wireframed over 100 pages, carefully planning each page’s content structure for optimal user experience.
Conducted iterative usability testing across 6 rounds, involving 80+ users, refining the layout with each iteration.
Planned and designed the e-commerce functionality, including 13 scenarios and flows.
Preliminary results:
Our content personalisation implementation increased our visitors’ consideration of applying, with a range of 1.8% to 9.0% uplift in click-through rate for different application forms.
Improvements in site speed results (average of mobile and desktop across 3 pages)
Google Pagespeed Insights Performance Score: Average score improved by 30%.
Google Speed Index: improved by 36%.
02 / Understanding the problem
What is the objective of the new website? What are the needs and expectations of the users? What challenges do users currently face in completing their tasks?
In this section:
- Stakeholder Interviews
- Landscape Review
- Discovery Interviews
- User Personae and Journeys
Stakeholder Interviews:
Before diving into user research and ideation, it was essential to first align on business goals and requirements. These discussions helped ensure a shared understanding of the new website’s objectives and set the stage for clear expectations. We also gathered valuable insights into the target audiences and peers to conduct the landscape review.
Key learnings:
Defining SIM’s Identity:
The new website must convey SIM’s role as a lifelong partner throughout all stages of life while emphasising how SIM stands out from and adds value compared to autonomous universities.
Target Audiences
The website must serve a broad audience ranging from 18 to 88 years old, including:
- Prospective international students
- Prospective local students
- Parents of prospective students
- Prospective PMEs and their HR departments
- L&D directors, C-suite executives, and HR teams from corporates
- Current students seeking further academic progression
- Agents representing international students
Website Improvements
- Clearer Value Proposition
- Content should feel conversational and engaging, not robotic
- Showcase student clubs, campus experiences, and ensure the content is rich but not overwhelming
- Reassure parents of prospective students about the quality of education and campus safety
- Highlight SIM’s partner universities and their role in the Global Education (GE) offerings, while showcasing SIM’s unique value proposition
Landscape Review:
With a good understanding of the business and expectations, we proceeded to study the landscape. We focused on six key criteria and analysed 20 websites, including five autonomous universities and 15 private institutions. Our analysis centered on the following areas:
- Information Architecture (IA) structure and standout elements
- Intuitive search and filtering features
- Presentation of partner universities
- Course offerings, including degree and professional development courses
- Display of enterprise learning and corporate university content
- Campus life and student-related information
Key learnings:
Information architecture
We found a gap in the landscape regarding the representation of a holistic, long-term educational partnership within website structures.
While many websites offer persona- and task-based navigation, we found no examples that successfully combine these features with the representation of an institution’s “education partner across all life stages” offering.
This presents an opportunity for the new SIM website to develop a unique Information Architecture (IA) that both reflects its long-term educational partnership with users and addresses the diverse needs of its audience. The IA will be a tailored solution that embodies SIM’s distinct identity.
Campus life & student information
We found that showcasing the vibrancy and safety of the campus environment is a key area of interest for both students and their parents.
These are the common content types to do so:
- Statistics that emphasise the school’s USPs
- Virtual tours
- User-generated content
Additional useful content:
- Detailed information about the school’s location to reassure prospective international students and parents about the safety and quality of life in the area
- A “chat with current students” feature to provide first-hand insights into school life and courses
Intuitive search and filtering Solutions
With a wide range of undergraduate and professional development courses, a powerful search and filtering functionality is essential for users to find relevant options. We found examples of sites that successfully implement this with:
- Predictive search suggestions
- Relevant filter options, such as career paths and skills acquired
- Clear presentation of search results
- Related content recommendations
Discovery Interviews:
In collaboration with SIM, we identified seven distinct target audiences for the website. From this list, we worked together to prioritise the primary audience for user research, with the understanding that addressing their needs would also address the majority of secondary audience needs.
I conducted remote user interviews with three key primary user groups (due to COVID-19 restrictions):
Prospective students (or early first-year students)
Prospective PMEs or Parents of prospective students
HRD, L&D directors, or C-suite executives from corporate organisations
Research Objectives:
How do users independently research and evaluate schools and courses? What factors influence their decisions?
What is the current perception of SIM’s brand and website experience?
What specific goals or information do users seek when visiting the SIM website?
Were users able to find the information they needed?
What challenges or frustrations did users encounter on the current website?
Given the distinct nature of the three user groups, the interview questions were customised to gather insights relevant to each group’s needs and behaviours.
Here are some findings:
Interview Insight #1: Perception of SIM
Many users were unaware that SIM offers courses for professional development.
SIM was perceived as a backup option when local universities were out of reach.
There was a general perception that degrees from SIM were less recognised than those from local universities, which may impact employability and earning potential.
Users were unaware of the added value SIM provides through its partnerships with local and international universities.
Some users mistakenly confused SIM with SUSS (Singapore University of Social Sciences).
Interview Insight #2: Research Behaviours of Students & Parents
Students primarily relied on online forums and reviews for research.
SIM’s Instagram was used to explore campus life.
Students chose the programme; parents handled the financial decisions.
For many locals, SIM was a second choice due to lower entry thresholds or missed application deadlines, though it was seen as the most reputable PEI in Singapore.
International students and parents chose SIM based on recommendations and considered Singapore’s education quality, safety, and cultural fit.
User Personae & Journeys:
Based on insights from the discovery interviews and survey results, I developed 3 target user profiles: Jessica (Prospective Student), Shaan Raj (PME), and Nur Lyanna (Corporate Leader).
Documenting personae allowed me to better empathise with the primary user groups and prioritise goals aligned with their needs.
Mapping out the user journeys for each persona further deepened my understanding of their full experience, uncovering key gaps and opportunities that guided the solutioning stage.
03 / Ideate
In this section:
- Task Flows
- Information Architecture & Navigation Sitemap
- Wireframes
Task Flows:
To visualise and better understand the individual steps users take during their journey, I created task flows. This process was instrumental in shaping and finalising the Information Architecture.
The scope for task flows was limited to five, so I focused on creating flows for five key website tasks across the three personas.
To identify the most relevant task flows, I considered the primary goals of each persona. For both prospective students and PMEs, the key task was finding courses and assessing their suitability.
The first two task flows were:
Task #1: (For prospective students) A diploma graduate is looking for degree courses and wants to compare and assess the options to find the best fit.
Task #2: (For prospective PMEs) An HR executive is searching for courses for colleagues, aiming to compare and assess the courses to gather information for reporting.
For corporate organisations seeking enterprise learning, the key goal was understanding the education academy and available customisation options. As a result, the third task flow was:
Task #3: (For corporate organisations) A manager is tasked with exploring SIM’s enterprise learning capabilities and customisation options.
Information Architecture:
Based on insights from stakeholder interviews, discovery interviews, landscape reviews, and task flows, I defined the Information Architecture (IA) for the new SIM website, which was then evaluated during usability testing with users.
While tree testing and card sorting were out of scope for this project, I would typically use card sorting to help formulate the IA and tree testing to evaluate it. For this IA, I used Miroboard for visualisation, which was then converted into a PowerPoint document for client review.
In creating the Information Architecture, my main goal was to ensure that the needs of all three user personae were equally prioritised and presented.
Given that each persona has distinct goals, needs, and content requirements, I proposed an IA structure split into three main user groups. This way, each user group can focus only on the content that’s relevant to them, simplifying navigation and improving the overall user experience.
Here’s how the navigation was structured and designed: the concept focused on balancing content exploration with easy access to practical information.
Wireframing:
I prioritised the pages to be designed based on their relevance to the primary personas, focusing on the most important pages first.
For each page, I outlined the relevant persona and their goals, defined the content structure, and designed the layout to align with those objectives. This approach ensured the pages met persona needs and provided a solid rationale for presenting the wireframes. In total, I wireframed over 100 pages.
Here are some of the key functionalities wireframed:
Introduced the ‘summary’ and ‘in-depth’ options for the artwork description on the homepage, to make art relatable to both art-engaged and non-art-engaged audiences.
Consolidated sub-galleries into bite-sized content, eliminating the need for sub-level pages within the exhibition page.
Introduced fun facts related to the exhibition to make art easy to learn and enjoyable.
Extended the visit experience with online art resources, split into beginner (intro to art, games & quizzes, virtual tours) and intermediate (publications, curatorial research) content.
Introduced an in-gallery guide functionality (from appeal testing) to help users navigate the gallery, addressing the issue of feeling lost and providing guidance during their visit.
Renamed ‘art journeys’ to ‘self-guided tours’ (based on tree testing), redesigned the layout with step-by-step directions to each exhibit or activity, and introduced a ‘Create your own tour’ feature for users to customise their experience based on their interests.
Created a family guide, catering to families as a key persona, allowing parents to access all visit-related content for their kids on a single page.
We simplified the purchase process by allowing users to add activities to their cart, with the system recommending the appropriate passes. For advanced users, a direct pass purchase option was also provided.
04 / Validate
In this section:
- Usability Testing
Iterative Usability Testing:
After designing the primary personae pages, I planned the first round of testing, created hypotheses and tasks, and conducted one-on-one in-person sessions.
I compiled the findings into a report, summarising key insights and next steps. Proposed changes were presented, and preparations for the next round of testing began. This process was repeated for each round, refining the design based on feedback.
In total, 4 pre-launch rounds (38 respondents) and 2 post-launch rounds (43 respondents) were conducted, with certain functionalities introduced in phases.
Each round resulted in an improved design version.
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