Personal reflections
My Contributions
I led user research to understand what marketing students at Western needed that wasn’t provided by existing resources. These insights shaped a better website design strategy and jointly supplied meaningful insights that impact the entire Marketing program. Additionally, I trained my successor, Cooper, guiding him through the research and early design stages to ensure a smooth transition. I also developed a wireframe structure that will serve as the foundation for future iterations of the site.
Results & Impact
While the research and structural groundwork for the SMA website have been completed, branding and content integration are still needed before development. However, Cooper, the new Director of Web Design as of December, now has the tools and knowledge to take on this next phase.
Reflections & Takeaways
At the start, I underestimated the complexity of redesigning the SMA website, assuming creating a quick UI would be straightforward. Due to the poor usability of the original site, I quickly realized that the project would require significant user research, a new UI from scratch, and a CMS migration from HubSpot’s unintuitive website builder to be done right. Initially, I built a wireframe without research, only to realize the project required more research to create the best experience. Balancing this work with a full course load and a night job made progress difficult. In my final quarter at Western, I restarted the process with a research-driven approach, but the depth of insights required extended the timeline beyond my graduation. However, I had a fantastic time diving into user research and mentoring Cooper on the UX process. I'm grateful for the experience and appreciate Cooper and the other SMA officers for their support throughout the journey.
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