APPLY TO STUDY
Apply to Study is Auckland University’s primary online application process.
Auckland University recently made changes to their application process in order to move away from physical (printed) applications and reduce the amount of in person and call processing. The key goal for the Apply to Study project was to house the entire application process on one platform and to make the process straightforward and painless.
Deliverables:
- Seamless User Experience
- Clear and concise User Interface
- Digital strategy
- Website development
There was a large team on this project: scrum masters, information architects, project owners, A full design team, and a full development team. Months of planning happened before any wireframes were thought about.
Pictured are some early wireframes from the start of the project. These evolved as the project moved forward and served as a guide for any interface designs.
There was a large team on this project: scrum masters, information architects, project owners, A full design team, and a full development team. Months of planning happened before wireframes for the actual product were even thought about.
Pictured are some early wireframes from the start of the project. These evolved as the project moved forward and served as a guide for any interface designs.
We used similar wireframes in our user testing sessions. We interviewed university students and noted their interactions with the application. Often it only took 3 or 4 interviews in order to uncover common pain points. We would then use our findings to inform design decisions.
Pictured is an example spreadsheet that the design team used when performing user tests.
We interviewed students and asked the questions seen along the top row, noted their answers and observed their behaviour when interacting with the wireframes.
These user testing sessions proved to be critical to the success of the project. Pain points started to reveal themselves after even 3 or 4 participants. We used these findings to inform our design decisions throughout the project.
For example, we discovered that participants wanted to use the upper progress bar as a way of navigating through the application as opposed to using the ‘back’ and ‘next’ buttons exclusively. We enabled this function for the production website and saw a reduced bounce rate as a result.
Pictured is an example spreadsheet that the design team used when performing user tests.
We interviewed students and asked the questions seen along the top row, noted their answers and observed their behaviour when interacting with the wireframes.
These user testing sessions proved to be critical to the success of the project. Pain points started to reveal themselves after even 3 or 4 participants. We used these findings to inform our design decisions throughout the project.
For example, we discovered that participants wanted to use the upper progress bar as a way of navigating through the application as opposed to using the ‘back’ and ‘next’ buttons exclusively. We enabled this function for the production website and saw a reduced bounce rate as a result.
My role within the project was focused heavily on designing the user interface and ensuring that the styles are kept consistent throughout the interface.
I also worked very closely with developers to ensure that the interface meets accessibility standards. A lot of work was done to ensure that a clear semantic markup is applied. This allows the interface to be ‘tabbed’ through using your keyboard and also ensures that screen readers will have clear headings to read aloud to visually impaired users.
The final solution is the product of years of work likely touched by hundreds of hands. It offers a simplified experience and allows users to go through the entire application process on a single platform.
My role within the project was focused heavily on designing the user interface and ensuring that the styles are kept consistent throughout the interface.
I also worked very closely with developers to ensure that the interface meets accessibility standards. A lot of work was done to ensure that a clear semantic markup is applied. This allows the interface to be ‘tabbed’ through using your keyboard and also ensures that screen readers will have clear headings to read aloud to visually impaired users.
The final solution is the product of years of work likely touched by hundreds of hands. It offers a simplified experience and allows users to go through the entire application process on a single platform.