Redesigning of the education department online platform, making Glasgow’s online education accessible for all students and staff. Creating a centre communications and content hub for Glasgow’s education department. Developing the digital first strategy aligning with the key aims of the GCC.
Glasgow Online
Date
1 August 2021
My Role
Design lead
Client
Project Type
Branding Strategy. UX and UI
Making education accessible for all students and staff.
The problem
Glasgow Online platform was first designed in 2010 and has received no updates since first product launch. It was not suitable for the demand of the online services that was needed during COVID-19.
What I did
- Facilitated discovery workshops to understand the problem areas,
- Created a vision for Glasgow online and aims for the project to manage expectations from stakeholders on the redesign,
- Co-designed the research plans with product owner and executed online surveys – reviewed and clustered insights,
- Led the redesign, art directed the visual re-brand,
- Developed wire-frames from the data we received from the research and creating prototypes for the platform from low-high fidelity,
- Received feedback from users and iterated the product for a better outcome,
- Handed over design resource files for developers to produce the final designs,
- Coordinated future design plans after 2020 launch for further development split into 3 phases to last until 2022.
Research and insights
- 250+ survey responses, I coordinated Interviews with the teachers board to find out user goals, user needs, users wants, constraints, see below:
- Support staff from many services within education wanted a one stop shop for resources,
- Making all the departments more connected online,
- Modernise how education works, making it more efficient and effective online.
- Current state of site is not easy to navigate,
- New staff members have a hard time using the site,
- Students uptake was low,
- The lack of structure in resources to upload and download,
- Admin staff does not know about other services.
The impact
- 250+ survey responses which was unheard of in the current team and proved that the users wanted change,
- 16 departments with 144 subsections have know a fully standardised template system that is all connected, reducing stress by connecting staff to the much needed information,
- The GO brand has created a surge of enthusiasm thats is connecting staff to the new version of online education,
- Removed 30+ templates which has reduced decision fatigue for page creation,
- Content creation by staff and students has increased 50%.
Lessons learned
- Have the full core team in the room when the projects starts,
- Not having a nominated decision maker in the room,
- Defined roles from the beginning of the project which would have reduced confusion and remove duplication of work loads.
My Approach - Design-Led Problem Solving
Discover
Understanding the ask, building an knowledge library around what we already know.
Define
Doing research and identify opportunities.
Ideate and Test
Develop and design new ideas to solutions.
Develop and Deliver
Share the outcomes and results of the new outcome.