UX case Study : University Usability Report

Founded in 1794, The university of Tennessee at Knoxville serve the state by educating its citizens, enhancing its culture, and making a difference in people’s lives through research and service. Unlike others shools, this university defines itself with its volunteer spirit.
In this case study, I need to interview one user and raise his opinion about the website of the university. After that, I will create a paper prototype which will improve the website thanks to the user’s impression about the website and problems that he puts forward.
Problems found after interviewing one user
- The interviewed person didn’t find the main navigation, he didn’t scroll down and click on the new. He was focused on the beautiful photo.
- This website describes an association based on the volunteering and don’t talk about the students and the course.
- The useful information (geolocalisation, important places, means of transport to come to the university, etc…) are not visible on the first web page. How students can come to visit or study ?
Key Quotes directly from user:
“Staff and students are on the same level of information, we don’t look at the difference”
“I think useful information have to be shown on the first whitout needing to scroll. ”
“We don’t see the main menu and the tabmenu.”
“Is it a website about an university ? it was written “university” but I think it’s about volunteering...”
Defining the Problem
This website seems to have no problems because he is well thought about design. However, it has a big problem on information and organization : users don’t show the main menu and there is nothing above the fold. When this website has been created, it has been decided to communicate on volunteering (certainly the difference with the competition) and not about useful information on the first page
Prototype solutions
- Users have to navigate with a menu “above the fold”.
- Courses must have to be available on the home page or by the main menu.
- Prospective and current students need to be informed on useful information whithout searching on all the website.





Users can click on the main menu above the fold. There are two submenus. If users need to know practical information, they click on “useful info” to find map, contacts, etc…
Instead of using the “donation” block, we can find introduction describing program and its quality.
Conclusion
In order to create an usable website for differents targets audience, we need to divide information because such users are not interested by another information, they need to arrive to the information they want. Interviewing one user allows me to understand quickly the real problems and the different goals and targets of the university of Tennessee at Knoxville. Independently of the organization of the information, i could learn that design is always important. In fact, some buttons are not really visible and the interviewed user have huge difficulties to navigate. It recommanded to have visible information above the fold because all contrary, some users don’t think to scroll. Furthermore, we have to understant what kind of information users need to find on the website. A website is always connected with the reality. The purpose of the organism depends on the organization of the information content and if you don’t respect these basics, you can loose your different targets. Finally, sometimes i think that a first prototype isn‘t enough to find the good experience design : we need to practice.
