Study case about Boston University website
As a future Ironhack student, I have been asked to select a university website and observe one user testing this website. I decided to do this user test on Boston University website, as one of my best friends used to study there and I asked one of my other good friends to be my testing user as he speaks English and used to live and study abroad too.
User persona
Name : George
Demographic : 32 years old, male, currently live in Paris, single.
Behavior : Works as a marketing consultant in tech, has a business school master, thinks of getting back to school for a MBA or Ph.D., has a balanced and healthy way of life, likes sport (runs 3 times a week), video games, gardening, spending time with friends and traveling.
Needs/goals : To get back to school to switch into a new position, always in marketing but in another field, from tech to responsible and environmental friendly compagnies.
About Boston University
As an international, private, non-profit, research university, Boston University is today one of the most dynamic universities in the world. The figures speak for themselves: over 33,000 undergraduate and graduate students from more than 130 countries, nearly 10,000 faculty and staff, three campuses, 17 schools and colleges, 250 fields of study, $400 million in research funding last year.
With world class students, extraordinary teaching and celebrated thinkers such as poets laureate, Pulitzer Prize winners, and Fulbright Scholars, among others, and of course not forgetting a leading global research institution, BU is proud of its community unlike any other, gratifying excellence as well as diversity and wider community service.
BU is convinced that its DNA makes the difference: an inherent desire in each one of its students, faculty, and staff to pursue knowledge and embrace its unlimited possibilities. This, among others reasons, explains probably why BU was also the place adopted by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to get his Ph.D. and hone his message of justice and equality.
What is the first impression given by BU website?
At first sight of the homepage, my friend found the website clear and dynamic with a sober and minimal design but cold, colourless, a bit old fashioned and not appealing.

How is the navigation?
My friend thought that the navigation was clear at the beginning. He found the main drop-down menu helpful to understand where to find what and liked that every underlined information on the homepage was separated into boxes. He considered that the extra menus in the header and footer were also helpful to navigate. Nevertheless while navigating deeper in the secondary pages, he got kind of lost, he had troubles to understand where he was exactly in the website and come back on the home page.
How easy it is to find specific information?
Indeed I asked him to find the school mascot, if the school offers foreign language instruction for Arabic, as well as the nearest airport to the school. He found the mascot and the nearest airport easily (less than one minute). He needed more time to find some information about Arabic (around 3 min) and still he could only find out some minors in Arabic, a program in Arabic in Rabat or the reasons why to study Arabic but not if there was some foreign language instruction for Arabic. For every specific information, he had to use the search bar on the homepage or on the map.
What are the main problems I found when I interviewed a user?
The navigation was a big problem. In the drop-down main menu, there are too much information at the same time and actually it is not easy to understand how the secondary pages are made and what to find on each. The subheadings should be probably modified and organised differently. For instance, we could not find any subheading with a list and the description of every course. Also when my friend was navigating from one page to another, the pages did not seem to have the same organisation and design and it was not helpful to navigate efficiently. Plus it was sometimes difficult to come back on the homepage. Last but not least, there is no roll over list when you pass on the secondary menu in the header so you do not know what you will find if you click on student or faculty sections.
The other problem was the design. The design seems boring and impersonal. My friend used the terms cold, colourless, a bit old fashioned and not appealing. There is not no so much colour on the home page. The pictures on the homepage do not really emphasise any happy and cheerful student or faculty face, or any cool campus event. We do not even see BU logo at first, as it is in the footer and not in the header.
What is the main problem that I chose to solve?
All the pages should be changed to get the same clearer organisation (at least the same header and footer) and the same sexier design but I decided to focus on the homepage as it gives users the first impression and is the basis of the whole website. This seems to me very important to improve its design and organisation to make it more appealing and easier to navigate and find the right information. Thus this could give users a good start and give them the will to go deeper.
How did I plan to solve this problem?
First to improve the homepage, I decided to change the header. I added the BU logo, this logo will be on every page so by clicking on it, users could easily come back to the homepage.
I simplified the drop-down menu (a drop-down list by section and not for the whole menu) and painted it in red to match the logo and make it more appealing with this warm colour choice.
I added a roll over list on each section of the secondary menu to help users to find information more efficiently.
To make the homepage less impersonal, I also decided to add a section/box about BU specificities (DNA and USP). I used icons and pictures to underline each specificity and a carrousel to display several ones.
To make it less cold and more cheerful, I decided to add a section/box with student and staff testimonials with pictures or videos and quotes.
These sections are using red colour sparingly and showing cheerful and colourful humans and events with pictures (or videos if possible).
I passed the existing boxes (headlines, alumni, Boston, campus, community…) after the USP box but before the testimonials box and I also added some red sparingly in these existing sections.
Here are the result of my paper prototype design:



What are the key things that I learned throughout this process?
Always think of other users / I was surprised how the user did not see or navigate the website in the same was as I would have done. It was very interesting to walk in another person’s shoes, this helped me to get a different perception and think out of the box.
Go gradually, go deeply / The different phases of the user test showed very different perspectives too. First sight, use without constraints and search for specific information enabled me to observe different aspect and problems.
Be simple, comprehensive, consistent and sexy / Always wondering if anyone could understand and navigate easily, if any needed specific information could be found quickly, if the structure is similar and logic to create helpful landmarks, and of course if the look is appealing and in line with brand image.