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ICCIT Department Website Redesign

UofT Human and Computer Interaction Professor Cosmin Munteanu chose a group of students to assess the usability of the 2020 edition of the ICCIT Department Website, and to produce a website iteration to present to the department's directors and stakeholders.

The current design of the ICCIT Website incorporates features of this iteration. As one of the chosen students, I acted as the lead UX Researcher, notetaker and interviewer.

Project Brief

The University of Toronto Mississauga’s Institute of Communication, Culture, Information and Technology wanted a group of students to ideate a prototype to optimize the webpage of the ICCIT Program.

The team built a questionnaire for 21 participants to interact with the ICCIT Webpages, in order to identify the problem. All participants were first or upper year students at the University of Toronto, Mississauga, majoring or looking to specialize in one of the programs of the ICCIT department.

design steps

Observation

Prototype

Integration

Ideation

Feedback

Application

Step 1: Preliminary Research

Example tasks and questions

01

Access the programs' tabs and navigate through different categories

03

Find relevant information for a first year student

05

Does the image grid provide relevant information to the titles?

02

Find the certificate of Digital Media

04

Does the carousel offer new information?

06

What type of information would you like to find here?

- Users found that the information was not easily visible and well organized.

- They identified three different navigation bars and mentioned that the cluster of images obstructed functionality.

- Users unfamiliar with the programs found the terminology confusing.

Step 2: Designing for User Requirements

01.

User Pain

Users had difficulties finding content relevant to their needs because some information is missing.

02.

User Pain

Users struggled to navigate the page because the information was not immediately visible and accessible.

03.

User Pain

The information was not well prioritized and categorized.

04.

User Pain

Some users found information they deemed unnecessary, particularly in the carousel design.

01.

Design Requirement

Adding a search tab that users can use to find the information they want and synthesizing the image cluster.

02.

Design Requirement

Change the navigation bar by reorganizing it accordingly, removing any redundant information and adding new categories.

03.

Design Requirement

To put the relevant information within common clusters and rename the categories that confuse users.

04.

Design Requirement

Create a single navigation tab and categorize the information.

pAIN pOINT

dESIGN soLUTION

Preliminary Idea to Simplify the Interface

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Proposed Solution

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Step 3: Testing and Design Questionnaire

Evaluation Protocol

Used for the first and second rounds of testing

01

Introduce users to the ICCIT Website, which aims to provide information on the interdisciplinary programs, student’s years of study, and sought-out opportunities.

03

In the consent form, users will agree to think aloud when executing tasks.

02

Inform that we will observe user’s interactions with our redesigned website and follow up with a brief interview.

04

Users are free to withdraw from the study and to take a break at any point.

Example Tasks

- Locate the CGPA cutoff

- Locate the different programs

- Identify useless features on the design and justify your choice