Over two years, I was requested to build and improve upon two web properties for the school (Fellowship Opportunities and Mechatronics, Controls, and Robotics Laboratory). The new and improved websites led to better usability and user experience for students as well as paved the way for indigenous websites that reside within the principal school website.
Background
There are tons of funding opportunities for students at all levels but more than often students are not aware of these opportunities or lack guidance to write competitive applications. A study by Science, a peer-reviewed academic journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, suggests that the chances of award nearly doubles if the educational institution provides targeted resources and mentorship to its students. At the same time, more number of competitive applications from an institution leads to a greater number of awards.
Problem Statement
Create an all-inclusive portal for the 5500+ Science - Technology - Engineering - Mathematics students of NYU Tandon School of Engineering to help them prepare their applications for various prestigious fellowship opportunities with a special focus on the National Science Foundation's Graduate Research Fellowship Program.
The Golden Circle
My Role
I was responsible for undertaking a human-centered approach to conduct a user experience study and conceive and design a new website, including content, under the guidance of a Professor of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering at NYU Tandon School of Engineering.
User Persona
Age: 18 - 26 years old
Demographics: STEM students enrolled in a bachelors or masters degree course at NYU Tandon School of Engineering
Needs:
- To know about various fellowships and scholarship opportunities available.
- Resources to strengthen their application.
Motivations:
- Fund higher education.
- Build strong credentials for a successful career.
Desires:
- To push forward research and innovation in their field.
- To create substantial social impact as a result of their work.
Frustrations:
- Either not enough literature on how to construct a successful application or scattered information.
- Limited or no faculty support for guidance and mentorship for applying to fellowships.
User Journey Map
Pain Points and Goals
| Pain Point | Goal | |
| 1 | Lack of quality and trustworthy information about the funding opportunity. | A dedicated portal or sub-website maintained by the school or the university to disseminate relevant documentation. |
| 2 | Scarcity or limited access to human resources for guidance and mentorship. | Connect worthy students with mentors from the faculty and industry. |
Information Architecture
Wireframing
User Testing
Here are the main issues found in usability or user testing:
- The Fellowship Opportunities website is a sub-website that resides inside the NYU Tandon School of Engineering's website; therefore, the school's logo should be visible in the navigation header and should be able to guide the users back to the main website.
- There should be a way to sort the fellowships based on the category since not all students are eligible for all the opportunities. For example, NYU Tandon School of Engineering has a vast amount of international students who aren't eligible for federal opportunities.
- Breadcrumbs are of great importance on the website since the content runs very deep in the hierarchy and the users can easily get lost.
- A button should be added so that the students can RSVP for the workshops which will also help send a reminder to the students wanting to attend the workshops.
Color Palette
#57068c
#6f6f6f
Technical Languages Utilized
HTML; CSS; JS; PHP
Tools Used
Adobe Dreamweaver; Adobe Illustrator; Adobe Photoshop
Web Design & Development
Key Performance Indicator
The KPI used for the project is the growth in the National Science Foundation's Graduate Research Fellowship Program awards for NYU Tandon School of Engineering's students which was the primary fellowship opportunity for which the efforts were focused in 2019. Both the absolute number of awards and percentage share of NYU Tandon School of Engineering, with respect to the total number of awards, is taken into account.
Visual Design
Problem Statement
Revamp the existing Mechatronics website as per the design and branding guidelines of the New York University as well as make all necessary changes deemed fit for tackling the user's pain points. All-in-all the new website should be user friendly compared to the existing website and should be free from usability errors.
Old Website
Pain Points and Goals
| Pain Point | Goal | |
| 1 | The website is full of broken links and contains a decade of old information. | Publish updated content wherever necessary. |
| 2 | The box model website looks ancient and medieval. | Use the complete width space available in the browser window. |
| 3 | It is not responsive to mobiles and tablets. | Make the new website responsive to all screen sizes. |
| 4 | The navigation menu is not consistent throughout the website. | Have a single consistent navigation menu. |
| 5 | The website lacks profiles of researchers and doctoral candidates. | Add individual profiles of the people working in the lab. |
| 6 | Different outreach programs have different page structures. | Implement a consistent design scheme and visual hierarchy. |
| 7 | No central page to look at all of the press coverage. | Add a page with the press coverage received by the lab. |
| 8 | Background and foreground colors do not have a sufficient contrast ratio. | Build an inclusive and accessible website. |
Color Palette
#57068c
#6f6f6f
Technical Languages Utilized
HTML; CSS; JS; PHP
Tools Used
Adobe Dreamweaver; Adobe Illustrator; Adobe Photoshop
New Website
User Testing
A user testing exercise was conducted with seventeen graduate students from the Mechatronics, Controls, and Robotics Laboratory where each one was asked to draw a comparison between the old and the new website based on purpose, ease of navigation, look and feel, engagement, organization of content, and overall.
Key Performance Indicator
Net Promoter Score, a proven metric for rating user experiences and brand loyalty, was used as a KPI for the project. 88.2% of users gave a 9 or higher rating when asked about how likely are they to share the new website with their colleagues, recruiters, friends, family, and network at large as a gateway to the work being done at Mechatronics, Controls, and Robotics Laboratory.
