Course Project
SCAD Degree Planner
Information revamp and aesthetic update of our Degree Planner, now enhanced with AI functionality.
The Current SCAD degree planner is facing various issues that hinder students with their academic journey. These issue include inaccurate course information, limited customization options, and a lack of integration with real-time academic data.
Roles
Prototyping
UI Design
Interaction Design
Motion Design
Timeline
10 Weeks
Methods
Competitive Analysis
Personas
Storytelling
User Research
User Testing
Challenge
The overall usability of the SCAD Degree Planner leaves much to be desired. While it shows promise in certain areas, there are several key issues that hinder the user experience.
Research
Competitive Analysis
Based on our competitive analysis, we identified key areas where our competitors were lacking and discovered opportunities to differentiate our product design and strategy.
Survey Insights
Surveyed the student body to acquire valuable insights and make informed decisions. We found students did not regularly rely on the SCAD Degree planner in it's current state.
Interview Insights
Personas & Storyboards
I constructed personas & storyboards to better understand the challenges and pain points of our stakeholders.
Sarah King represents our understanding of dedicated students seeking to enhance their academic journey through a more efficient degree planner.
Jess is a Success Advisor at SCAD, dedicated to understanding and addressing the needs of students.
Storyboards post redesign
Design Process
Wireframes
Survey and interview insights indicated that a SCAD Degree Planner redesign necessitated three key improvements. The current design faces issues with lack of customization, inconsistent aesthetics, and insufficient user guidance.
Plans page
(Course Sequencing)
Worksheets page
(Student Information & Completion)
What-if page w/ AI integration
Our starting point for the what-if page was a minor redesign, maintaining its original functionality. Straightforward with a simple tool to check course options. However, we saw an opportunity to elevate this program's design to truly empower students with the integration of AI.
User Testing
Worksheets page
We found some displayed information wasn't relevant and moved it to a dropdown menu. We improved the visibility of class completion status and icons, and added a clear key to help students understand class status indicators.
What-if(AI integration) page
During usability testing, students found the AI interface unclear. We revised the design to better indicate conversational input and added suggestions to encourage student interaction.
Final Design
Outcome
The redesign significantly improved both user experience and overall product performance.
Using insights from our primary and secondary research, we identified and resolved critical pain points, enhancing the Degree Planner's functionality and interaction design.
Worksheets page
Our worksheets page features an elevated and highly communicative design.
Plans page
Upon selecting a class students now have convenient access to relevant course information.
