Joining UVA Clubs Just Became Simpler: a UX Case Study

Many first years at the University of Virginia can attest to the fact that finding the perfect club to join is somewhat tiresome. I know this because I was there, and many other people I’ve talked to would agree. UVA’s annual club fair at the beginning of each year seems to continually be held on the hottest day in August. Many students find the daunting heat unenjoyable and dysfunctional, only making the process more difficult. That is why I’ve decided to mock up a simple and efficient website where students can quickly access information to all clubs at UVA.

How might students efficiently find information for clubs tailored to their interests at UVA?

If the club fair isn’t efficient enough, what is? I began my search for a solution by conducting user interviews. Current students and recent grads spoke to me about their experiences at UVA and how they found their perfect club. The students that I spoke to were passionate about a wide array of clubs, many that I had never even heard of. However, despite their varying interests, their thoughts about the process were all too similar. The two biggest themes I encountered were:

1. The club fair isn’t as useful as it seems
2. Students need to initiate their own research for clubs

The majority of the students I spoke to said they would prefer a website where they could easily search for what they specifically wanted in an organization. Nevertheless, this prompted me to begin my website design.

The Process

After conducting more research I found two existing areas online where organizations could be found at UVA, one website being confusing and the other hard to immediately find. My goal was to create an easily accessible and efficient website.

This information is found at the very bottom of a current UVA page, something that most students would find to be very valuable information, casually descripted as “Additional Information.” This is the kind of material that should prioritized. For that reason, I used this as inspiration in creating a new homepage for all organizations at UVA.

Original homepage for “@UVA” (left)…My version of “WHAT’S@UVA” (right)

The first look a user receives on the original homepage (left) is a search bar. However, if a student knew what they wanted to search, they would most likely use Google for that. In my design (right), I used the layout from the “Additional Information” of the UVA page, inserting that front and center of the loading screen. I renamed this, “WHAT’S@UVA” for clarification. Each box directs the user to their respected websites, as each organization has one except for “Clubs” which originally redirected you to this site:

Once again, a website requiring prior knowledge that can often be difficult to obtain. If students don’t know exactly what they are looking for, this makes research much more difficult. The categories bar is a good step towards refining results, however in my design, I added a “Sort By” bar to refine results even further.

Conclusion

The ability to research clubs with categories and sorted results truly allows for a user to tailor their search to their personal preferences. With refined research, students will be more willing to join something they actually care to be apart of. This way, both students will find their true passions and clubs will receive students who are passionate about their organization. In creating this redefined website, every club could be found and categorized accordingly, making incoming student’s lives much simpler when searching for the perfect club to join.