Grady | Melmartinezux

Grady College

Site Redesign 2022

OVERVIEW

Grady College of Journalism & Mass Communications is one of the top programs in the country. Founded in 1915, Grady is home to more than 1,500 students. Our goal was to highlight the Grady difference through a cohesive story that inspires, connects, and engages prospective students, alums, and beyond.

UX Role

Lead UX Design & Strategy
Lead Research & Analysis
Wireframes
Prototyping
Assisted Visual Design

Scope

Two week sprint RFP response showing homepage, menu, and search results.

DISCOVERY
& ANALYSIS

Our objective in this phase was to perform competitive market research, audit the current-experience, analyze the different target audiences and their needs, and ideate solutions. We did this to be sure we were providing the best features, functionality, tools, flows, and user-friendly experience to users.

Perform Competitive Research

Analyze what other education programs and colleges are doing to attract new students and provide information and resources. Surveying the competitive and comparative landscape for best practices, inspiration, and ideation.

Audit the Current System

We then audited the current experience for usability, efficiency, and effectiveness. Focusing on the homepage, main menu, search results page, and the overall navigation and information architecture of the experience. Some of our main takeaways were limited discoverability, uninspiring, visual imbalance, and compartmentalized tools and resources.

Define Target Audience Needs

Since the Grady College website is used by a wide variety of visitors, we had to think about creating a design that captures new students, provides resources to current students, and engages alumni.

Ideate Solutions

With the above discoveries, we began thinking through what an ideal user experience would entail while using our knowledge on design principles and best practices.

DEFINE THE SOLUTION

We defined key areas of improvement that would take the experience to the next level and solve user pain points. Our process involved drawing out the homepage on a whiteboard first, and then moving into Figma to ideate visuals elements and components. I also spent time on the whiteboard mapping out the main navigation items and reorganizing the information architecture.

Inspirational Storytelling & Credibility

It was important to emphasize the Grady story, history, and credibility of the program to inspire and encourage prospective students to apply. We surfaced impactful statistics, elevated the Peabody Awards, and Student Showcase, while incorporating engaging photography to help tell the story.

Provide Guidance to Prospective Students

Prospective students are the main target audience and arguably the most important, so we provided an area for them to explore programs and career paths. Additionally, we incorporated an academic advisor support chat and career quiz as a tool to guide the undecided in selecting the right path.

Promote the Community and Increase Engagement

We created a news and social feed space where students and alums can get involved and sign up for events, subscribe to the magazine, and read about work being done by current students. This area not only is informative, but it also inspires and works well as closing module to wrap up the narrative of the homepage.

Improve Wayfinding Paths and Discoverability

Since one of the main purposes of the Grady College webpage is to provide student and alumni information and resources, it was important to create a system that was easy to navigate, explore and discover. By creating intuitive paths with evolving information, we were able to make exploring an iterative, on-going process.