MYCOURSES REDESIGN
MyCourses is the RIT student's essential survival tool. This course management platform enables students to submit their homework, stay on top of important deadlines, and keep track of their grades.
MY ROLE
Research, UI/UX, Visual
YEAR
Fall, 2017


INTRO
With all of the challenges students face, MyCourses shouldn’t be one of them. After evaluating the current
state of the platform, I established issues I would set out to fix, project goals, and who my users were
“How can I help students manage their courses, grades, and assignments?”
While MyCourses is an essential tool for students, it's cumbersome to navigate, lacks hierarchy, and is inconsistently organized, making it difficult for student's to complete tasks, organize their priorities, and manage their time.
Lack of Hierarchy
All of the content is styled and presented similarly, so much that students have a difficult time finding assignments, announcements, and updates.
Cluttered navigation
Navigation between courses, the home page, and all the features within the courses lack structure and consistency.
Facilitate communication
Course content is structured differently between each course, which breaks the schemas students have where certain content should be located.
GOALS
Increase Submissions
Help students keep track of all their due datesu00a0and empower students to submit their work on time
Improve Course Access
Create a seamless, intuitive experience that is natural and easy for the student to navigate
Facilitate Communication
Promote and encourage conversation between students and professors


The Avid Learner
Thirsty for knowledge, these students dive deep into their assignments, are proactive about their tasks, and seek outlets to push themselves further
NEEDS
- Intuitive course navigation
- Access to contacting professors


The Busy Bee
Known as the extracurricular enthusiasts, these students are involved in numerous activities and need to optimize their time to balance their busy schedule
NEEDS
- Features that facilitate organization
- Intuitive, efficient system


The Submit-it and Quit-it
These students use the platform for the bare essentials, submitting homework and understanding when the next assignments are due
NEEDS
- Easy homework submission
- Task manager
FEATURES
With this redesign, I aim to improve the usability of this platform by creating clear navigation and pushing the most
utilized features forward to create quick, easy interactions that support the student, not hinder.
Upcoming Assignments
An intelligent checklist that greets students upon landing. This module provides students with quick links to help them stay organized and get tasks completed on time.


Course Updates
Stay up to date with quick, digestible course notifications, as well as provide an easy, color-coded secondary means of entry into a courses’ page.


Dropbox
An organized and intuitive dropbox that sorts upcoming assignments for you, and notifies students on how much time they have left.


Course Tasks
Course task cards that explicitly inform students on what they are responsible for completing each week.


Course Board
Encourage supplementary conversation that is relevant to the course between students and faculty


DESIGN PROCESS
I became intimately acquainted with the UX design process. From user research to
information architecture to wireframes and look and feel, I pulled it all together
to create the final product


I wanted to reorganize the platform and provide multiple points of entry
into key features like the dropbox, courses, and course assignments


I wanted this platform to have a fresh, clean look that felt structured,
organized, and simple
Wireframes helped me organize and structure my content to create a
dashboard that solved for the student's needs


CONCLUSION
Throughout the MyCourses redesign process, I learned skills like basic user research,
wireframing, and how to tighten up visual aesthetics, I got to experience a large range of
tasks in a user experience project
The Users are King and Queen
In redesigning a tool I use every day, I was challenged to set aside my own assumptions and quarrels with the platform and seek feedback from all types of users. This project provided the opportunity for me to learn the value of user research techniques like surveys and interviews to gain a deeper understanding all users.
Accessibility
Towards the end of my project, I began to realize that my system relies heavily on color. If I were to go back and redo this project, my first priority would be to make sure that the colors are accessible to all types of users and to provide another form of indication so that the system doesn't rely on color alone.
Interested in a deeper look at how I got to the final product? Check out my process documentation to see everything that went into making the final solution