WEBSITE REDESIGN
OVERVIEW
Problem: Since the UVA Career Center’s last website redesign in 2014, a multitude of issues have cropped up. These issues ranged from visual (no longer conforming to brand standards) to functional (no easy way to insert video) and more—resulting in a compelling case for a redesign.
My Role: As the Career Center’s main brand steward, I was responsible for leading the initial redesign proposal, from user research to visual design.
Goal: To create a website that is accessible and visually consistent with UVA and Career Center branding while improving the user experience by making content easier to find and explore.
Programs Used: Photoshop, InVision, Adobe After Effects (gif)
One of the counselor user journeys.
User personas for our key audiences.
RESEARCH
Product Design
Research
I began by collecting a list of small, easily fixable issues. I then searched for larger trends using a combination of quantitative and qualitative data. I used Google Analytics and CrazyEgg to look at page views, exit rates, user flow, and heat maps. I then interviewed two counselors and two students with the goal of understanding their frustrations and learning how they use the site. Finally, I did competitor research, analyzing both other UVA student affairs sites and other universities’ career services sites.
Personas
Based on my research, I developed four personas to represent our key stakeholders and their individual wants, needs, and frustrations.
Journey Mapping
I then created journey maps to show a typical experience for each stakeholder.
DESIGN
There were three major issues to fix with the visual design: accessibility, branding, and functionality. The old design did not meet WCAG standards due to color contrast issues, which I fixed in my redesign.
Second, the design didn’t align with our new brand standards and was, frankly, outdated looking. I updated the site to match our current brand, with matching tablet and mobile versions.
Finally, I made several functionality changes, including adding more clear call-to-action elements and switching the navigation to a more scannable location on the left. This helped mitigate user pain points regarding navigation and clearly defined entry points.
