The New School
Online Registration
The registration process is vital for the success of an online education program. A faulty or cumbersome registration experience may discourage students from pursuing their education goals and it can harm both school enrollment and profit.
The recent experience registering for an online certificate course in The New School was far from a streamlined process, which resulted in a less than optimal user experience.
Client: The New School
Role: UX Researcher - Interaction Designer
Responsibilities: Surveys, Prototyping, User flows, Wireframes.
Tool: Adobe XD, Figma
Duration: 2 Months
Methodology
I used exploratory research to validate the problem and to gain understanding of student attributes and their perceptions during the online registration process. In addition, I surveyed other stakeholders (school administrators and instructors) to inform
our conclusions.
Given the impossibility to conduct in person interviews at the current time (Covid-19 pandemic), I surveyed 10 users and stakeholders and centered the analysis around the student's experience (negative or positive) when registering online.
As a final stage, I conducted a brief competitive analysis to identify opportunities for The New School Certificate program and registration. I concluded by suggesting a new user flow for the registration page.
Key Insights
100% of users surveyed disliked aspects of the registration process and on average ranked the difficulty level of this process as 7 / 10.
Interestingly, students reported very different times in attempting to complete registration; some spent as little as 7 minutes while others spent days.
Users were very specific about the issues that made the registration experience less than optimal. I represented these pain points as part of the student persona and then took this information one step forward by designing a new flow and journey experience for the registration page.
The new experience takes into consideration the information collected from other stakeholders, in particular school administrators, who reported receiving negative feedback associated with the registration process.
Personas
John Doesitall
The New School Online Student / Main User
John is your typical New Yorker, he is young, but experienced as a professional. Recently, he has found himself spending a lot of time working from home due to the Covid-19 pandemic and he is trying to learn new skills that could help him get a promotion at work or perhaps pursue a new career path. He has decided to enroll in a UX online Certificate at The New School, which he believes is the best educational resource out there to meet his goals. John is a busy guy, he practices sports in his spare time and is a member of a pro-bono association, which adds to the list of things he does daily. He has no time to waste and he is also concerned about his finances, which makes this professional transition a make or break deal.
Goals and Needs
John wants to enroll in the right class for the right online certificate and in the shortest amount of
time possible
Pain Points
Lack of clarity in registration website (instructions, timeline)
Time consuming steps due to glitches, redundancies or imperfections in the system
Not being able to get help when needed
Pleasure Points
Timely information for registration (in advance)
Streamlined online registration processes
