Supporting students throughout their university life
Client
Australian University
Services
Design Research, Strategic Design, Product Design
Industry
Education
Year
2019
Impact
The Student Support online experience for one of Australia’s Group of Eight (Go8) universities is now streamlined into one space so meaningful content can easily be found. There is now one Student Support website instead of disparate websites for student services.
The updated information architecture (IA) enables students to find support easily and accessibly. The IA research completed by the Symplicit team informed objectives, priorities and design decisions which helped our client team to create purposeful content for their student’s use.
Value
Students have access to a more straightforward Student Support navigation that enhances their experience and empowers them to find support with ease when they need it the most.
Symplicit supported the design foundations of a larger, ongoing project at the Go8 University, highlighting and emphasising students’ support expectations of the university.
Process
Various methods contributed to the proposed information architecture for the new Student Support website. Desktop research gave preliminary insight into the existing website structure and use while stakeholder workshops were conducted to align understanding of the problem space.
Contextual interviews with students were conducted to understand how students seek information on campus, their needs around getting support, and their awareness of the University services available to them.
Finally, a Top Task Survey was co-created with the client team, which included 120+ Student Services requirements. Card sorting sessions were undertaken to understand how students organise and prioritise the tasks. These sessions informed an information architecture that is logically structured and makes sense for different cohorts of students.
Mindset
Symplicit used a human-centred design approach throughout the project. Collaboration with stakeholders and students was vital in reaching a purposeful outcome. Courage and curiosity allowed our team to ask hard questions when conducting and communicating the research to our client team.
