AAU Department Page Redesign

Introduction

This blog documents the process of creating a new design for the Department section of the Academy of Art University’s website. In a group project, we analyzed the current site for flaws and then performed heuristic evaluations, interviews of target users, affinity diagramming and cardsorting, use case task analyses, and feature/function summaries. 

Through all of the information collected in these sessions, we developed wireframes and high-fidelity prototypes that we used for in-person user testing at the Academy of Art Usability Lab.

Incorporating the rich feedback from the testing scenarios, we furthered our prototypes into initial designs.

Following is the work we completed for this project, listed in order of the process, beginning with our site Requirements Analysis.

Requirements Analysis Part 1

PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION & DEFINITION

The AAU Department site has an overall lack of personal experience for the user. With no visual examples of the work created by the different departments the site represents, it’s cold and purely informational with no access to the various social networking groups and pages the Academy is known to have. There is no acknowledgement of the Online community of the Academy and this is a major problem due to the size and success of the online school. With no descriptions available to get a real scope of each major and what the classes offer, specific information needs to be provided.

The site would be far more successful if it offered visual representations of each department with social networking and student work galleries. By providing descriptions for each of the department courses it would allow users to quickly navigate and gather the information they are looking for.


RESEARCH SUMMARY

Through early interviews we were able to collect information from our three target users. Each member of the group chose either the parent, prospective student or current student and conducted an interview. Once our interviews were finished we created an affinity diagram to summarize and break-down the major issues of the site.

Requirements Analysis Part 2

USER PROFILES

PARENT

Description: Parents of prospective high school students that are interested in art school. These families do not live locally in the Bay Area but mostly live in the United States and plan to send their kids to San Francisco to attend on campus.

• 45 to 60 years of age
• Male and female
• Middle to upper-middle class
• United States based, some International
• Not typically artistic or in creative fields
• Uses facebook, plays Farmville
• Average computer skills
• Both conservative and liberal
• College graduate, at least a Bachelor’s Degree

PROSPECTIVE STUDENT

Description: Prospective students interested in attending an art school, will be seeking either a BFA or MFA. They live close enough to attend school on campus and far away so they attend online. Some students are international and others are US Citizens.

• 17 to 40 years of age
• Male and female
• Middle to upper-middle class
• Various ethnic backgrounds
• Live mostly in the US and Asia
• Computer-oriented
• Uses social networking
• Facebook and Twitter
• Creative and inspired
• Liberal
• Hard-working and driven to succeed

CURRENT STUDENT

Description: Current Academy of Art Students. Both BFA & MFA, online and oncampus. Local and international. These students could attend the Academy online or on campus. Generally in search of information regarding a particular major they express interest in.

• Approximately 17 to 30 years of age
• Generally single
• Both male and female
• Generations X & Y
• Middle to upper-middle class
• Ethnically diverse
• Tech Savvy
• Relies on social networking for communication
• Individualistic
• Socially Conscious
• Achievement Oriented
• Culturally liberal

Requirements Analysis Part 3

PERSONAS

PARENT

Jim is a 48 year old man who lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He has been married for 25 years and has two children, one 22 year old daughter and one 17 year old son. Jim has worked at the same company as an accountant for 15 years. His son has decided he wants to go to college studying 3D animation. Jim is not very educated in the arts, art schools and job prospects for people in the arts. Curious about what 3D animation has to offer, he researches schools that offer 3D animation. His son has also shown interest in moving to the Bay Area with the possibility of living with Jim’s sister, who lives in Fremont, CA. 

Jim himself went to college, but his wife did not. Jim always encouraged his children to go to college in hopes they would become successful. He wants to be sure that he sends his son to a school that will be worth his money because he will be helping his son pay for school. He also wants to make sure that when his son graduates, he is left with a degree and knowledge to get a good job. Jim wants to look into the colleges that are most appropriate for his son. He wants to easily gain information to choose which Bay Area school will best suit his son.

PROSPECTIVE STUDENT

Rachel is an eighteen-year-old living outside of San Francisco in Sonoma County, CA. She will graduate from high school in June of 2011 and is looking for a school to attend in the Fall of 2011. She has always been very interested in art and hopes to pursue a creative career. Her parents have agreed to let her attend an art school but they would like her to stay in the state rather than attending out of state. They hope college will be a bit more affordable that way and they also don’t want her to be living too far from home. 

Rachel got good grades in high school and worked part-time at the local bookstore to save money for college. She wants to help her parents fund her school so that she can avoid having to pay a lot of loans off once she graduates. She knows that she will continue to work part-time while in school and so hopes to attend a school that allows her a flexible schedule.

She is most interested in concentrating in Interior Design for her degree and so is looking for schools that offer that sort of education.

CURRENT STUDENT

Mike is 23 years old full time student at the Academy of Art University. Originally from Kings, New York he attended Kings College for a year working towards a bachelors in Media, Culture and the Arts. Deciding that he really wanted to get into the motion picture business he took a year off to view his prospects and decided on the Academy as a Motion Picture & Television major with a concentration in film editing.

Upon moving to San Francisco, Mike was forced to get a job immediately and began work at Bite Sandwich Shop. Michael has been able to balance his heavy work load while maintaining decent hours at the shop, but recently an internship was thrown into the mix. Mike now spends most of his time when not in class or working, on the road going from shoot to shoot constantly editing his homework while working as an assistant lighting technician.

Utilizing the myAcademy page Mike often checks his grades, on-line class and upcoming deadlines to keep in mind. However the Department site is what keeps him on track. While on the road Mike realizes he has to sign up for the upcoming spring semester classes. Because Mike has received a job offer from the company he currently interns for he is looking to graduate as soon as possible while still being able to receive a bachelors in Fine Arts with concentration on Motion Picture & Television. Mike is very easily distracted and decides he had better get on this before his mind wonders on to something else.

At the Department site Mike looks to see what classes are coming up next according to the degree breakdown, and how many classes he is from graduation. During his search he finds a Script Breakdown and Continuity class he is interested in. Wanting to know more Mike hovers his mouse over the class only to find out it isnʼt a link. After receiving instructions from his manager at the current location of a shoot Mike closes his computer still unsure of the task of choosing classes. He figures he will have to check outside of the department site to get some answers.

Requirements Analysis Part 4

TARGET PLATFORMS

Browsers of the users include Internet Explorer, Firefox and a small percentage using Chrome.

The percentage of users and versions of browsers go as follows:

• Internet Explorer 8 ( 30% of viewers )
• Firefox 3.6 ( 45% of viewers )
• Chrome 6.0 (18% of viewers )
• Other ( 7% of viewers)

Operating systems include: Windows ( Windows XP & WIndows 7 ) and Mac. According to w3schools.com 90% of our viewers are likely to be using a Windows operating system, while about 7% would be using a Mac operating system, leaving 3% to other systems.

Resolution wise we are looking at screens that are 1024 x 768 or higher. They are mostly going to be around 1280 x 1024.

User Interview #1

Current Student

Interviewee: Megan Nordahl

On the evening of October 17, 2010 I conducted an interview with Megan Nordahl a current Illustration student at the Academy of Art University. While she navigated the Academyʼs department site I asked her the following questions:

Q: What do you generally use the Academyʼs Department site for?

A: I really only use the department site to view the degree breakdown for the Illustration school, BA in fine arts. I also use it to make sure Iʼm on the right track when I go to register for new classes.

Q: What do you think works about the site?

A: I think this site is really only useful to prospective students. It does a good job of breaking down some of the available job opportunities in Illustration. But like I said I really only find it useful when checking which classes I have left to take and where I am in the program so far.

Q: What issues or problems did you run into when navigating the site?

A: There really isnʼt much useful information on the site for a current student. A lot of descriptions and course names, it feels a little redundant. Also the type is very small, especially on the navigation bar on the left.

Q: Do you think itʼs a good representation of the Academy?

A: Absolutely not, this site is very outdated. It is not visually interesting to look at whatsoever. I mean, this is an art school after all. The site should be a representation of the beautiful work that comes out of these different departments of the school. Instead it looks quite bland and boring.

Q: What parts of the site do you think most need important?

A: I really think the site needs to be more visual. More pictures of student work would be nice. Also I would like to see pictures accompanying the facilities section. Thereʼs a lot of type, but not a lot of visual information.

Q: Is there any information the site doesnʼt provide for you? If so, what?

A: As a student I mostly use the my.academyart.edu page because that is where I can find easy access to the student self service and online classes. The department site doesnʼt really have any information that is relevant to me as a current student, other than the degree breakdown. Perhaps, to make the site more interesting, the area where they list firms that have hired students could have links to these companies website, or examples of professional work that students have done after graduating. Or there could be examples of student work from each of the classes that they list (sci-fi illustration, comics, childrenʼs book, etc.). It would be nice to see current department events, guest speakers who will be visiting the school.

Q: Are there any suggestions you have to make this site a better experience for a current Academy student like yourself?

A: To make it more useful for current students they should integrate some of the MyAcademy page implements. Like links to the online school log-in. It would be great to see some student work featured too. Maybe feature a different student artist each month?

User Interview #2

Prospective Student

I instructed my interviewee, Brittany Pier, interested in attending the school for Interior Design, to use the academyart.edu site and then answer the following questions:

Q: As a prospective student, what is your reason for going to the site?

A: To find out about the school administration requirements, application process, and tuition rates.

Q: What about the site made it easy or difficult to efficiently find the information you needed?

A: The first tab (Admissions) led me to most of the information I was looking for. Tuition rates were a little confusing as I’m not sure if they include housing/meals.

Q: Does the site provide you with all the information you would need in regard to choosing a major?

A: No

Q: If you answered No, what do you want to know about choosing a major that you were unable to locate on the site?

A: Specific focus of various classes involved, a description of what I would be studying besides just the class names.

Q: Did you have any other difficulties with the site?

A: I wanted to see more about the campus. An e-tour would be nice so I can get a feel for the school without physically showing up for a tour. There weren’t many images throughout the site.

Q: Why does the site leave you interested or uninterested in pursuing your degree at the Academy?

A: It leaves me uninterested because I don’t have a feel for the campus environment and what day-to-day life will be like.