Oh how do I begin on this one? This was my thesis project, so, I had plenty of freedom.
Lets start with the problem — The Instituto Politécnico do Cávado e do Ave (IPCA) has six digital platforms to support its community, students, teachers, and employees, in the provision of services and tools to support academic and management activity. These platforms were developed and made available at different times, without consistency in terms of structure, organization, and design. To respond to the problem of the dispersion of the platforms, IPCA created the Portal IPCA to centralize all these platforms to facilitate their access, solve “brain-switching problem” and engage the whole community.
However, the solution found by the institution was temporary, assuming the need to develop an efficient solution in terms of visual identity, usability, and structure. At the same time, there was a difficulty in maintaining consistency and scalability between the different services due to the use of independent platforms. Considering this, IPCA reached out to improve their existing Portal.
Having identified the main problems, the long-term objective of IPCA was to progressively implement all services in its new education platform. Thus, to provide a pleasant experience for its community, the interface solution for the new version of the education portal was designed based on Double Diamond methodology processes, and simultaneously, the use of the Atomic Design methodology to support the scalability.
Secondary research > Market Research > Primary Research > Insights > Empathy map > Personas > User stories > Key insights > Brainstorm > HMW > Problem statement > Prioritization matrix > Story mapping > Information Architecture > Prototype > User testing > Iteration > User testing.
This just does not happen in real life, period. But, since I had the opportunity, I went crazy with that process.
Started to stalk a bit by reading articles, analyzing the independent platforms and the beta version of the Portal IPCA, and sniffing around similar platforms, but they had restrict access. So, despite having discovered patterns, my best bet was with primary research, which I did surveys and interviews.
After 207 answers and 10 interviews, we used the affinity diagram and empathy map to process the data. Together, we identified the needs of our main target audience, the students, through personas.
We proceeded by simplifying the problems identified through user stories and key insights. We then brainstormed ideas and HMWs questions to uncover valuable features and enhancements for the Portal, specifically targeting student needs.
We recognized that Moodle and SIGA were the most widely used platforms among the users. Therefore, we decided to prioritize integrating the main features from those platforms into the new version of the Portal through prioritization matrix map.
Following that stage, we structured the interface using information architecture and explored content organization through wireframes. Then we developed the design system in parallel with the high-fidelity prototype, engaging in iterative testing with 5 users per round, refining, and repeating the process. It's an ever ending story, but we had to finish it.
Apart from consolidating services provided by independent platforms, our concern was to enhance adherence to Portal IPCA. This prompted us to minimize the services visual prominence, considering their availability through alternative means. Furthermore, we integrated essential functionalities of those services for students, and planned to gradually remove the external services as the integration progressed.
One important aspect for students was the first screen encountered after logging in. They needed visibility over their next deliveries, finances and support material right away, and so we made it happen, we used icons, tags and different colors to allow them to prioritize and take action in a matter of seconds.
Often we see colorless platforms, but we have dispersed away from it. By incorporating subtle details like using different colors for subjects, we have not only improved its visual appeal but also allowed quick scan identification through repeated use.
Accessibility is a huge factor when we are dealing with an institution that serves a big community. So we converged our attention to it and even made a dedicated page for that.
Putting it all together, the platform proved to be efficient and acquired satisfaction from the students. But, unfortunately, with the departure of the project lead, it did not progress to the development stage.
