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Case Study / 2025

University Platform Redesign

UX Research
UI Design
Product Strategy

A complete overhaul of a major university's student portal, reducing cognitive load and improving task completion rates by 43%.

📱 Dashboard Preview — Placeholder for final design

Overview

Client: Western State University — 25,000+ students

Timeline: 4 months (Research → Design → Testing)

My Role: Lead UX Designer — User research, IA restructuring, UI design, usability testing

The existing student portal hadn't been updated in 7 years. Students struggled to find course registration, submit assignments, and check grades. Drop-off rates were high, and support tickets were overwhelming the IT department.

Challenge

The platform suffered from three core problems:

  • Poor Information Architecture — Critical tasks were buried under 4–5 clicks
  • Inconsistent Navigation — Every page had different layouts and button placements
  • Outdated Visual Design — No hierarchy, small touch targets, and accessibility issues

Students were spending an average of 12 minutes just to register for a single course. The mobile experience was virtually unusable.

Research & Insights

I started with discovery to understand real pain points:

  • 15 user interviews with students, faculty, and admin staff
  • Survey responses from 450+ students
  • Analytics review of existing platform usage patterns
  • Competitive analysis of 5 other university portals
“I dread registration day. I never know where to click, and half the time the system crashes or I lose my progress.” — 3rd year student interview

Key Insight: Students don't want a "portal" — they want a dashboard that shows exactly what they need, right now.

Solution

Based on research, I restructured the entire experience around task-based navigation:

  • New Information Architecture — Reduced clicks to critical tasks from 5 to 2
  • Task-focused Dashboard — Personalized view showing upcoming deadlines, registration status, and grades
  • Mobile-first Design — Fully responsive with touch-friendly targets
  • Consistent Component Library — 30+ reusable UI components for scalability

Design Process

I moved through low-fidelity wireframes to high-fidelity prototypes, testing at each stage:

📝 Low-fidelity wireframes — Placeholder

After 3 rounds of usability testing with 12 students, I refined the navigation and simplified the registration flow. The final design passed WCAG 2.1 AA accessibility standards.

🎨 High-fidelity UI — Placeholder for final mockups

Results & Impact

43%
Faster task completion
67%
Reduction in support tickets
4.8/5
Student satisfaction score

The redesign launched in Fall 2025. Within the first month, course registration errors dropped by 52%, and student satisfaction scores increased from 2.9 to 4.8 out of 5.

Next Steps

Phase 2 will include:

  • Mobile app development (iOS & Android)
  • Real-time notifications for grade updates and deadline reminders
  • Integration with learning management systems (LMS)
  • Personalized course recommendations based on student history

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