STUDY ABROAD CLIENT WEBSITE REDESIGN
This study abroad organization provides students from China, Korea, and Japan with for-credit study abroad opportunities during semester, year-long, and summer terms across the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Europe, New Zealand, and Asia. The client had one main website, and three market sites for their Chinese, Korean and Japanese students, though the Chinese site was not in scope for this project.
The goal was to create one master site that includes Japan and Korea where the company can scale into new markets while optimizing the localized experience.
PROJECT BACKGROUND
TEAM
UX Researcher (me!)
Project Manager
Content Designers
Visual Designers
Client from Japan, Korea, and Australia
RESEARCH METHODS & SCOPE
Discovery workshops with client
Competitive analysis
Tree tests to explore information architecture
Unmoderated usability tests for usability and design
TOOLS
Miro for discovery workshops
Optimal Workshop, Treejack tool for tree tests
Playbook UX for unmoderated usability testing
Google sheets for time on task analysis
PROJECT CHALLENGES
Clients in Japan, Korea, Australia and various USA timezones
Long turnaround time for materials that needed to be translated into Japanese and Korean for participants
Language barriers when communicating with stakeholders and conducting tests with participants in the two markets
TREE TEST
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Treejack tool on Optimal Workshop
The purpose of conducting tree tests was to understand how users perceived the navigation and information architecture of the new website design. The team wanted to see where users would go to find specific content and use the results of this study to adjust both content design and the sitemap.
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I created a screener on Optimal Workshop to ensure we were recruiting the correct participants. Then I created 10 tasks and translated the tests into both Korean and Japanese with the clients' help. Below are the tasks, insights and recommendations.
BREAKDOWN OF PARTICIPANTS
42
Total Participants
26
Korean Participants
16
Japanese Participants
SCREENER QUESTIONS
3 screener questions were asked to ensure participants matched the necessary requirements. First, we wanted to make sure the student was currently enrolled in college in Korea or Japan. We also wanted to make sure the students were not yet in their senior year, nor had they already used our client to study abroad.
TREE TEST TASKS
10 questions were asked to see where students would go to locate various topics like finding a country, university or program to study abroad, and information about housing, health and safety, past experiences and academic requirements.
TREE TEST TASK SCORES
Scores were calculated using Optimal Workshop's Treejack tool based on success of the task - if they chose the correct answer - and directness - if they immediately selected the correct path, or took other ways of finding it. A score of 1-3 needed modifications, a score of 4-5 was deemed ok, and a score of 6-10 meant users easily found the information.
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Information that was easily found: About, Health & Safety, and Webinars.
Information that was not easily found: Discover Universities, Language Requirements, Housing, and Home University.
WHAT WE FOUND OUT:
1. Students might have a preference to find a study abroad placement by destination or by university vs. by country
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2. Housing information was difficult for students to find, which needed to be adjusted since this is an important part of their selection process
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3. Students were not able to find information about the university in which they were currently enrolled, called "Home Universities"
UNMODERATED USABILITY TESTS
Playbook UX & Google Sheets
The goals of the unmoderated usability testing was to: ensure effective, efficient, and easy wayfinding of information for potential students, make sure the locations of the "schedule a consultation" and "apply" buttons were obvious and useful, and to consider general usability of the menu and navigation on the newly designed prototype.
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I created a 10 tasks and set up 2 studies on Playbook UX, one for Japan and one for Korea. In total, the prototype was tested by 10 students selected by each of the client markets. Sessions were recorded on Playbook UX, and time on task analysis was completed using Google Sheets.
BREAKDOWN OF PARTICIPANTS
10
Total Participants
5
Korean Participants
5
Japanese Participants
TASKS
10 participants were given 10 tasks and a high fidelity wireframe to test where they might find program specific requirements, housing information, and university details. Students were also asked how they might find a program they'd personally enjoy.
WHAT WE FOUND OUT:
The client had informed the team that American students wanting to study abroad typically looked into programs that have easy classes, locations that are great for travel, and a reputation for being fun.
When we studied the unmoderated usability tests from the prototype, we found that students from Japan and Korea acted quite opposite of students from America. Japanese and Korean students wanted to attend the highest ranked university. They didn't care about location in the US, nor did they rely on categories labeled as "Northeast Universities" or "Midwest Universities" to filter their results. These students instead used the prototype to filter by top ranked universities.
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Because of this research, the website design was altered to highlight universities that were highly ranked in the US, instead of showing US universities broken up by region, which participants never filtered by. This design change will help students more easily find a program that is perfect for them.
WHAT HAPPENED NEXT?
After presenting to client stakeholders in Australia, Japan, and Korea, the project was passed off to the content and design teams who worked to finalize Figma designs before implementation. Once the clients approved the changes, the development team worked hard to make the site live.
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