A UNIFIED UNIVERSITY WEBSITE THAT SERVES THREE AUDIENCES
Singapore Institute of Management
The project goal was to unify the Singapore Institute of Management's (SIM) three business arms into a single website that serves the needs of their respective users. A comprehensive UX study was conducted, along with solutioning.
Client
Singapore Institute of Management
My Role
Lead UX Designer
Type of Work
Stakeholder Interviews
Landscape Review
Discovery Interviews
Personae
User Journeys
Task Flows
Information Architecture
Wireframes
Content Planning
Prototyping
Usability Testing
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The Process
Our process references Nielsen Norman Group's design thinking framework. We aim to incorporate the key phases of Investigation, Ideation and Validation in all of our projects.
01 Investigate Phase
Stakeholder Interviews & Landscape Review
Before hitting the ground with user research and solutioning, it was crucial to gather business goals and requirements. I prepared a guide for the stakeholder interviews and co-conducted the sessions with the head of UX services in my company. The outcome was a better alignment on expectations of the new website, as well as an idea of the target audiences and competitors.
Learnings:
Learning #1
The new website needs to establish SIM's identity by:
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Communicating that SIM is a lifelong partner across all life stages
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Emphasising SIM's differentiation from and value-add vs. autonomous universities
Learning #2
Target audiences:
Individuals from 18 to 88 years old​:
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Prospective international students
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Prospective local students
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Parents of prospective students
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Prospective PMEs (and their HR)
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L&D directors/C-suites/HRs from corporates
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Existing students looking to progress
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Agents for international students
Learning #3
Some of the key improvements to be made:
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Clearer value proposition and more impactful first impression
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Content needs to be written like a human would and not like a robot, and should be personalised based on audience
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Include more student life information (student clubs and campus experience) and ensure that content is comprehensive but not overwhelming​
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Assure parents of prospective students that SIM provides great education and is safe​
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Frontline the university partners and position them before SIM (for GE), while also highlighting SIM's value-add​
These findings helped to identify the strategy of the new site, areas that SIM wants to improve as well as who we should speak to as part of the user interviews.
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The stakeholder interviews also informed us who are SIM's competitors. We looked at 5 autonomous universities and 20 private universities. When examining the competitor sites, we looked at the following:
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How competitors structure their IA, and if any stands out​
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Intuitive search and filtering that stands out​
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How competitors feature their partner universities​
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Course information – both degree courses and PD courses​
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Presentation of enterprise learning/corporate universities related content​
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Campus life and student information
01 Investigate Phase
Discovery Interviews
With the 7 target audiences identified, we worked with SIM to identify the primary target audience of the website so that they could be prioritised for user research. We believe that by solving the needs of the primary audience, we will also solve majority of the secondary audiences' needs.
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I conducted interviews remotely (due to Covid 19) with 3 primary user groups:
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Prospective students (or early first-years as proxy)
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Prospective PMEs or Parents of prospective students
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HRD, L&D directors or C-suites from corporates
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Goals:
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How do users conduct research on their own when evaluating and deciding a school/course? What factors do they consider?
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What is the user's current perception of SIM's brand and websites?
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Why do users come to the SIM websites for?
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Did they find what they were looking for?
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What struggles do they faced with the current websites?
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Given that there are 3 distinctive user groups, the questions asked during the interviews were tailored accordingly.
Some findings:
Interview Insight #1
In terms of users' perception of SIM:
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Unaware that SIM offers courses for professional development​
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Back-up option if local universities are not within reach​
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Degrees are less recognized than those of local universities – graduates will be less employable and get lower pay​
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Unaware of SIM’s value-adds to the degrees offered by partner universities​
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Mistaken SUSS as SIM
Interview Insight #2
In terms of research behaviors of students & parents:
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Most students referred to other sources, such as online forums and reviews of the school or university and its programmes
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Most students visited SIM instagram to get a glimpse of the campus life
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Students choose the university and programme while parents made the financial decisions
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For most locals, SIM was not their first choice but opted for it due to lower admission threshold or missed the local universities' application deadline.
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However, they think that SIM is the most reputable option among other PEIs in Singapore
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International students/parents choose SIM based on friends recommendation or prior knowledge of SIM
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International students/parents' considerations when choosing Singapore are the country's quality of education, safety, proximity and culture
Report
02 Ideate Phase
Personae & User Journeys
Using the insights from the discovery interviews and survey results, I defined the three target group profiles Jessica (Prospective student), Shaan Raj (PME) and Nur Lyanna (Corporate Leader) to better empathise with my main user groups and prioritise goals according to their needs.
Mapping out the 3 personae' user journeys helped to better understand the full process as well as the user and their experience in them. The outcome of the user journeys further presented gaps and opportunities to consider during the solutioning stage.
02 Ideate Phase
Task Flows & Information Architecture
In order to visualise and make more tangible the individual steps that a user makes during the process, I have created task flows. This helped to form and finalise the Information Architecture.
Based on the insights gained from the stakeholder interviews, discovery interviews, landscape review and task flows, I defined the information architecture for the new SIM website and then evaluated it during usability testing with users.
Tree testing and card sorting were out of scope, otherwise I would typically use card sorting to formulate the IA and tree testing to evaluate it. ​I did the Information Architecture using Miroboard but converted it into a PowerPoint document for clients to view it easily.
03 Validate Phase
Wireframing, Prototyping & Usability Testing
Based on the Information Architecture, I planned the key pages to start wireframing. When wireframing for every page, I noted findings from the investigate and ideate research phases to come up with a page layout and content structure that balances business and user needs. I used UXPin to create mid-fidelity wireframes and prototype for usability testing.
I planned and conducted usability testing remotely with the 3 user groups and the testing revealed minor labeling and content gaps. For example, change 'Blog' to 'Student stories', and 'Thought leadership to 'Industry insights'​. ​​​​
Wireframes:
Usability Testing:
Usability Testing Report:
Once the wireframes were finalised, I collaborated with the creative designer to enhance the aesthetics of the user interface, without compromising UX decisions.
