Albert Course Selection System

Elevator pitch

The NYU course selection system has become a pain point for both students and faculties for a long time. In this project I redesign the Albert Course Selection System and making it to be an independent, easy to use website which provide detailed information about every courses students want to know.

Project Story

This project is focusing on redesign the Course Selection System of the NYU student center. Currently, NYU is using Oracle’s Campus Solution suite to manage their student center. This system is truly user unfriendly. Although gaining a lot of complain, it is hard to totally redesign the entire system because there is too many connection inside that need to be modified.

By creating an independent course selection website, users can be directly guide to a clear new website and finished the course enrollment process in this system without bothering by Albert.

This website contains two main sections. The course searching section and the course reviewing section. Course searching section maintain keyword searching feature other school’s systems don’t have but welcomed by many students. It also have the general criteria search which uses droplist instead of a crowded list of all schools and majors. Student can customize the search by the advanced feature. In Course reviewing section all course information are been stored inside a table therefore it is easier to read and find target information.

Comparative Analysis

To understand the general information needed for a course selection website. I analyzed some current college course selection system and online courses website. I also interviewed some of their user for their feedback. It is helpful to learn what they have and what they have miss. Some of their features are a really good inspiration for my design.

PSU OSU UIUC Stevens Lynda Udemy

Keyword Search

× × × × √ √

Category Search

√ √ √ √ √ √

Customize Search

√ limited × × × ×

Simplicity (How easy

for beginner)

4 3 1 2 3 4

Readability（Clear & Provide enough

informatio）

4 3 2 3 3 2

Aesthetic and Design

3 4 2 1 4 4

User Survey & Result

Process: I interviewed 12 random students in NYU library, both undergraduate and graduate, ask them to share their story about using Albert. It is unsurprisingly to find out nobody likes using Albert. Most of the complain comes from the format of the website.

Key Finding: 1.People want all the information they need automatically displayed on screen instead of manually click many times.

2.People want course selecting website as simple as possible but still provide enough information so they do not need to go Google for extra.

100%Dislike

14%9%

29% 26%

23%Small letterHierarchyBack ButtomLack of InformationManully type things

Paper Prototype Round 1

Based on the current design, the comparative analysis and the user survey result, I create this first round paper prototype.

Paper Prototype Round 2

Create Keyword Search Bar

Add extra major searching option

Based on the first round testing result, I create this second round paper prototype. I basically keep the general format because all users think they are clear and easy to use. But I did add some other feature based on user’s need.

Add restart new search feature

Add a Wishlist to store extra courses

User Persona

Lyndsey, 18

Lyndsey is a freshman in NYU major in education. She grow up in a small town in Pennsylvania and this is her first time being in a big city without her friends and family. She is really exciting but nervous about her college life. Lyndsey wants go back to her hometown and be a high school English teacher after graduate, but she is really confuse what she need to learn during college.

Device: macBook air, iPhone 5s

Frustrations: · She doesn’t know where to start at when first seen the NYU Student Center · She hates to read many words in screen · She is bad at memorizing things especially numbers

James, 27

James is a graduate student in NYU. He likes fun and cool technical stuff. James hates ordinary life. He worked in a business company for data mining for 5 years but decided to quite and do something special. This is his third semester in NYU. James is working for NYU game center and developing his second mobile game app now.

Device: Dell, One plus one

Frustrations: · He hates too many clicks · He wants a way he can find the course precisely match all his needs

· He doesn’t like apple because he think they are killing personality.

Bob, 59

Bob is a NYU Physics professor. He doesn’t really like at digital devices because he a long time to learn how to use them. Bob likes reading novel, especially old fashion detective story. He try his best to avoid using NYU student center because it makes his eyes hurt. But he needs them to check the courses update.

Device: iMac, Samsung

Frustrations: · He get confused every time · He cannot read small words in screen · He likes colorful design

User Flow James is trying to schedule his class next semester. He wants to see what kind of courses his major has. Also, he don’t want to have class on his working hours.

Open Albert Student Center

Click “Search for courses”

Select Semester, School and Major

Jump to Course Search System

Click “Advanced”

Type in his working hours at “Add Break”

Click “Search”

Jump to Result Page

Browse Result

Click “Add to Backpack” to select courses

Interactive Wireframe

http://a5s4jn.axshare.com

Click “My Backpack”

Review the Selected Courses

Jump to Backpack page

Click “Enroll”

Successfully enroll for his next semester

Jump to finish page

Site Map

User Testing & Results

Contextual Inquiry: The biggest problem is that although initially designed to be independent from each other, 5/8 people thinks the 3 searching method are a combined feature. After a series of interview and discussion I think it might be better to follow their patter. But is decision still needs future user testing. Also, 4/8 people ignore the “Add” button when using the “Add Break” and “Add major” features and 3/8 believes these two features need more detailed explanation on screen.

A/B testing: I did a A/B testing about the “Add break” feature. During the second round paper prototype, some user mentioned instead of selecting time they don’t want to have class, they prefer selecting time they want to have class. However, the result shows 6 of the 8 people still want the original design which is the “Break”. Therefore, I decided to keep this feature.

Annotated Hi-Fi Wireframe

Keyword Search

Criteria Search

Advanced Search

Break and Major Feature, remove the “Add” button

Editable Criteria

Search Result

Click the name to show Instructor’s

profile; click location to show the map

Conclusion Over all the website works great. People commenting “It is much easier to use than Albert” or ”I would love to use this website” during their testing. I am intended to continue modifying the website based on the last user testing feedback, adding more interacting feature instead of default and trying to generate a better idea for the hierarchy of search features.

Result for selected course

Coursers to be saved

Click to finish the enrollment