Problem

A key role of mySJSU is for students to feel secure in knowing that their university is overseeing their college coursework. At it’s worst, however, the student is left feeling confused because academic tasks cannot be completed and the information is not well communicated.

Objective

• Determine the intentions of use and simplify the process for its user.
• Evaluate the application’s content, features, and hierarchy and their relevancy to the user’s goals.
• Conduct a usability test to determine how users carry out their goals and identify key pain points.
• Perform a redesign of mySJSU’s PeopleSoft application based on the preliminary findings.

Process

My team and I started with an initial product evaluation by focusing on its target audience, creating typical user profiles, and determining the context of use. Web analytics were explored to determine areas of high traffic and the type of tasks that are performed.


A usability test was conducted to measure both performance and subjective data. Performance metrics included: success rate, task time, and errors. Pre and post-test surveys were administered as a means of comparison. Observations were documented and interview responses recorded.

Re-Design

The data collected was a basis for the areas to be refined:

• Determine the intentions of use and simplify the process for its user.
• Evaluate the application’s content, features, and hierarchy and their relevancy to the user’s goals.
• Conduct a usability test to determine how users carry out their goals and identify key pain points.
• Perform a redesign of mySJSU’s PeopleSoft application based on the preliminary findings.

These findings resulted in modifications to the most important SJSU student tasks of the application: (1) Viewing course schedule (2) Course registration and (3) Academic status. Improvements to the original design include an:

• Easier Log-in
• Improved Home page organization with focus on student goals
• Simplify the Class Search
• More efficient process to Add Course and View Grades.

Below are diagrams to visually describe the changes that were made and the reasons why.

What I did

• UI evaluation
• User profiling
• Usability Testing
• Data collection
• Usability enhancements
• Application re-design
• Hi-fidelity prototype