Design Lead (I led end-to-end redesign and migration of the website)
1 PM, 2 Engineers, 1 Designer
2024 Q2-Q3
Research, Interaction Design, Product Thinking
Short on time? I got you covered.
Led the redesign and migration of Student Housing website for the University of Guelph.
Driving a 27% decrease in bounce rate, 35% drop in call inquires, and 22% reduction in email inquiries.
Managing different stakeholder priorities, navigating time and resource constraints effectively. Gained experience in securing buy-in from engineers.
The problem
The Housing website was last updated in 2012 and failed to support the universities growing needs, creating friction for users and operational inefficiencies for staff.
Identifying Stakeholder Goals
Conducted 5, 1-1 interviews with internal leadership to gain a deep understanding of: high-level goals, resources, timeline, competitors, key metrics
Gathered 70 survey responses from other campus partners like admissions, colleges to get feedback and build early relationship
Impact on Student Recruitment
"We've noticed a significant impact on our recruitment numbers due to the lack of clarity around housing eligibility requirements"
- Assistant Registrar, Admissions
Usability Concerns
User Behavior & Patterns
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01
Primary users
75% visitors on our site are Future residents
25% visitors are current residents
Secondary users
The frontline housing staff who answer inquiries from parents and students via calls and emails
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02
User Behavior: Users hardly stayed on the page and decided to click on contact information
Hypothesis: Users are not able to quickly find the information on building features and amenities
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03
User Behavior:
Selects a residence from the top navigation.
Scans the page for 1.5–2 minutes.
Chooses another residence from the menu.
Repeats the scan for 1.5–2 minutes.
Navigates back to the previous residence.
Hypothesis: Users are trying to compare residence buildings
Ideation + Design Decisions
From our exploration, we found that other universities are using a comparison table for quick visualization purposes which are helpful and engaging. Although, these tables are static and not responsive on mobile devices.
We chose Option 1 due to component constraints from the development team. Although the Option 2 - custom filters was our preferred choice, we faced feasibility and timeline limitations that made it difficult to implement.
For the first iteration, we went with a simple comparison table that gets the job done!
After getting feedback from students on our MVP, we realized they were confused about which residence buildings were available to them.
We then added tabs that split the offerings based on student type.
Because we were not able to implement custom filters, students can not filter residences based on their preferred features and amenities.
We needed to find a way to display the amenities so that the building features and amenities are quickly accessible and easy to scan.
We chose Option 2, which divides amenities into specific categories.
After testing with users and gathering feedback, we realized that listing all amenities together made them harder to scan. Categorizing them made the information easier to browse and quickly scannable.
Final Designs & Metrics
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01
We made it easier for them to quickly compare residence buildings and find the right fit. This also significantly reduced students jumping back and forth between different residence pages to compare options.
Received 5,000+ visits in the first month, with users spending an average of 3 minutes comparing options
32% reduction in bounce rate on Residence Pages
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02
A much cleaner view of what each community offers. Each community page includes a Building Profile and Room & Building Features, helping students quickly select their preferred residence.
22% reduction in email inquires
35% reduction in call inquires
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03
We made the application process extremely straightforward by breaking it down into three simple steps:
Things to know before Applying
Application Key Steps
After applying what's next
80% users clicked on the apply button within 10 minutes of browsing the site
32% less questions received regarding application process
