The original site here has some room for improvements. We feel the new site can be a better representation of the high quality services that Science Guyz has provided for 10 years. Using my design process, this site can become both a pathway for Science Guyz's online expansion goals, and also a site that students can find trustworthy, reliable, and useful.
We targeted 25 individuals who have been to college in the last 10 years. Ideally, we wanted people who have taken difficult classes. Our survey consisted of 12 questions.
We wanted to know specifically what student's behaviors look like when they have to deal with challenging classes. Also, we wanted to know what services they would be interested in having if they were to pay for online resources.
One of the first things people do when struggling with a class is search for resources online.
They think this is most important to have for online resources. Followed by a way to ask professionals for help, then practice problem sets.
Rather than an online tutoring sessions, but would not be opposed to doing an online video chat if they can still ask questions and point to problems.
We understand that Science Guyz's services can be expensive for college students, so we want to see how having financial support impacts your decisions to pay for services.
We conducted 6 interviews consisting of 13 in-depth questions. We targeted individuals who have been in college in the last seven years to get an accurate assessment of how students utilize online resources for their challenging classes.
The interview data points and the survey are compiled into the affinity diagram below. They include valuable insights such as:
Majority of users found that their professors were not helpful and had to find ways to teach themselves difficult content.
Half the struggle of passing their challenging courses is finding reliable resources to use. Every student said they wouldn’t use a resource if they could not trust it.
Math and science courses bring different challenges than other coursework due to the nature of the content.
Most people would prefer to do live in-person tutoring, but are not opposed to having the option of online video chat.
Students who receive some form of financial support, are more likely to pay for external resources. The biggest obstacle for signing up is the price.
We compared the "Big 3" of online tutoring and resources. Chegg, Kaplan, and Khan Academy offer services similar to what Science Guyz is wanting to provide online.
They offered some great design inspirations, and below is a list of some the things we liked, including some things we would try to avoid (marked with a red X).
2 main personas came out our data. One is a potential new student looking for more help in their classes, and the other is a current user who wants more access to Science Guyz's resources online.
We had to include all the features that already existed in the original website, but also pave a way for a student login so that students would have access to resources online.
In the final design, we even added in the some of the things that were not as high priority, but felt that it was wrong to not include them!
Below are the main pathways defined for users, as well as the entire site map. This is the synthesis of card sorting to redesign the information architecture and also our key features and functions as well as user wants and needs.
Below are 5 of the main pages we needed to build. They showcase our main features, which are:
Below are 3 examples of our wireframes. These 3 pages are arguably the most important, as the main goal of the site is to have students sign up for a "semester plan" under the courses page, and also for them to book a tutor.
After 2 rounds of initial testing, we received feedback from a total of 8 users. Some of the most important feedback is listed below.
Users found the cards were confusing because they were giving options that were not related to each other. If we're trying to have people sign up for a semester plan, the drop in and private tutoring options are distracting.
Users thought the private tutoring options were too numerous and that it was difficult to find the one they needed. We ended up grouping them to under interactive slider carousel with the courses as the main filter.
The path to find out more information about services offered, such as workshops, was only possible from the footer. 100% of our users failed the task to find it initially. We ended up adding a carousel on the home page and courses page promoting the semester plans, showing what services are included and a link to find out more information.
The style guide consists of the original colors (red and black). However, we decided to add a dark navy blue to be a primary color. Red often gives the connotation that there is an error, and we wanted to make sure the red was used more for accenting.
Museo was chosen as the main type face because it works both as being professional yet with a twist of playfulness. It is not an intimidating text but still comes across as professional.
The logo was redesigned to make it more visually accessible. We removed the atoms in the background to make it more minimalistic and clean, yet keeping the periodic table design from before. The font is a variation of the KEEP CALM font, which suites the message that Science Guyz is trying to send to their students.
From the original to the high fidelity design, we strived to make sure the user's needs were central to every bit of redesign. Testing and iterating were critical to the outcome.
Want to play around on the Adobe XD prototype? Click the MacBook below. Note that this prototype is not responsive, but the we do have responsive designs that are not included in this link.
We also made sure to create a responsive web design for mobile as well. Everything we designed was made to fit into mobile.
We are still in contact with the CEO of Science Guyz, and the next step is to fine tune the design to their exact needs. We have developed a total of 3 pages using Webflow, and those pages are responsive.
The next steps would be to continue testing the prototype. We are also looking for a back-end developer to assist with creating a secure login system for their online material.
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