UniMatch

Developing a tool that students can use to search and find university courses

Role

Lead Designer

Industry

Education & Online Community

Year

2015

Reflections
For this project, usability testing was conducted to gather feedback on the design. While I don’t have all the specifics to include in this case study, the insights from the testing were incredibly valuable in guiding design improvements. The process helped highlight key pain points and areas for refinement.
Since then, my approach to usability testing has become more structured, and I now incorporate more detailed and frequent testing to ensure a deeper understanding of the user experience. This project was a key learning opportunity and laid the foundation for my ongoing development as a designer.

UniMatch is a tool that students can use to search and find university courses that would be suitable for them. They can find, research, compare and favourite courses.

The problem

After market research and competitor analysis, we found that there are other University course search and comparison tools but none that could offer the student insight and reviews that The Student Room could. By creating a tool that would allow users to not only find university courses for them but that they could read real reviews by students, and talk to them directly, we could create a great user experience and tool.

The Challenge

This project consisted of several stakeholders from different areas of the company who each had strong views on elements of the tool. At the start of the project, I led workshops on each of the different pages to define both the business and user requirements for the tool which then was used to inform and create layout decisions to provide a useful user experience. The project had already been researched and the team had a good understanding of what students needed to make this tool successful and useful to users.

UniMatch is a tool that students can use to search and find university courses that would be suitable for them. They can find, research, compare and favourite courses.

The problem

The Challenge

The Process

In each workshop, we looked at each step of the user journey in the tool sequentially. We defined the purpose of each of the pages which enabled us to identify the elements needed. The pages included a search page, results page, course page and saved courses.

During the workshops, I used a whiteboard to map out the different elements that we had identified that were needed. We looked at the hierarchy of the page and what the user journey would be to create the layouts.

After these sessions, I used the whiteboard wireframes to create high-res wireframes. These were reviewed by the project's stakeholders and were also shown to a small group of students to provide feedback. Their feedback was reviewed and documented to be addressed in the full design mock-ups. We then reviewed the mock-ups with other students.

Usability testing

Once the tool was created we invited a selection of students to come in to our in-house usability lab where we conducted user testing. By observing our test users use the tool on both mobile and desktop we quickly identified problem areas. We also found out by asking the testers what they found helpful.

Since the tool has been live on the site we have gathered a huge amount of feedback from students on the discussion forums but also by conducting further user testing in our usability lab. Using data on how users were using the tool we ran some A/B testing on the search results page which we found that a fewer option form field worked best to get users to progress to the next stage and it was at that point, after seeing their results users wanted to narrow down their search criteria to be shown more accurate and relevant courses.

Usability testing

Continuous Optimisation

Since launch the tool has been constantly reviewed and updated where necessary as well as adding in some extra features such as a course comparison tool.

Final Designs

Continuous Optimisation

Since launch the tool has been constantly reviewed and updated where necessary as well as adding in some extra features such as a course comparison tool.