A University Online-Admission-Application Form

UX Evaluation and Recommendations Case Study - Feb 2020

In the context of the UX Evaluation course at HEC Montreal , the student consultants conducted a usability evaluation to understand how users interact with the mobile version of the application form, identify areas of frustration and provide a set of recommendations to improve the user experience (UX) of a newly updated mobile version of the admission application form.

Goals

After a kickoff meeting with the business team the goals revealed as :

Experiment Design

The business team already had designed personas and we started designing the scenarios and tasks based on the provided personas.

Scenario 1: The Professional

Please fill out an admission application as a professional with accumulated years of professional experience and after completing previous university studies. In this scenario, you wish to obtain a certificate as a part-time student in fall of 2020. Using the information provided, complete the following tasks.

Tasks - Scenario 1

  • Login using an existing account
  • Select your program
  • Complete the identity form
  • Complete the Statement of Study form
  • Complete the Work Experience form
  • Exit the admission application process

Tasks - Scenario 2

  • Login using an existing account
  • Select your program
  • Complete the identity form
  • Complete the Statement of Study form
  • Exit the admission application process

Scenario 2: The International Student

Please fill out an admission application as an international student that has recently arrived in Montreal. In this scenario, you wish to start a full-time program in fall 2020. Using the information provided, complete the following tasks.

Scenario 3: The Grad Student

Please fill out an admission application as a recently graduated student with a bachelor. In this scenario, you wish to continue your studies to grad school in fall 2020. Using the information provided, complete the following tasks.

Tasks - Scenario 3

  • Login using an existing account
  • Select your program
  • Complete the identity form
  • Complete the Statement of Study form
  • Skip other information
  • Complete the Graduate Studies form
  • Exit the admission application process

Procedure

Recruitment of Participants

15 users were recruited based on a convenience sample via email. In the invitation, participants were asked to complete a screener survey. The survey allowed the consultants to select participants with the following must have “criteria”:
  • Participants must be 18 years of age
  • Participants must have be cellphone users (Android or Iphone)
  • Participants must be able to read and understand french “well or better”
  • There must be a balance in participants gender

Pain Points and Solutions

After the data collection finished, we analysed both the quantitative and qualitative data. Here its our main findings and pain points:

# 1 Decrease the interaction cost
  • Minimize and prioritize the total # of fields
  • Only ask what is mandatory or mark optional fields instead of mandatory ones
  • Autocomplete when possible i.e. Address
# 2 Help users correct their mistakes
  • Take users to the direct place of error
  • Display errors inline
# 3 Make call to actions intuitive
  • Clear and visible buttons
  • Provide an option to go back
  • Add a save button
  • More clear Exit button

Copyright © 2020 Paria Majidi.
All rights reserved.