HUMBER CURRENT
PROJECT SUMMARY
Humber Current is a showcase event for graduating students in Humber College's Faculty of Media and Creative Arts. I collaborated with a multidisciplinary team of UX designers and web developers to redesign the website, focusing on the home page and the Web Development and Media Communications program pages.
TIMELINE
November 2022 – December 2022 (7 weeks)
ROLE
UX & Visual Designer on a 6 member team (4 UX Designers, 2 Web Developers)
TOOLS
Figma
Google Drive
Microsoft Teams
The Problem
ABOUT
The FMCA's Senior Event Administrator highlighted challenges with the Humber Current show and website, including low student participation and a cumbersome content management process. Our team revamped the Media Communications and Web Development program pages to boost student engagement, streamline submissions, and showcase student profiles and portfolios to employers and peers.
Objectives
- Implement design solutions to increase student participation and effectively communicate the purpose of the Humber Current show to current and future users
- Identify user/stakeholder problems outside the need to update and redesign the Humber Current and position our clients amongst its competitors
Research
COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS
A competitive analysis was conducted on two types of websites: student work-sharing platforms and student showcase event sites from other institutions. The sites analyzed were Behance, OCAD University's GradEx, and George Brown College's Show GBC.
Findings
- All sites had minimalist designs.
- Student work was prominent, their talents and abilities being effectively showcased.
- The ability to add social media links, allowing for easy sharing and engagement with a wider audience.
Behance
OCAD University's GradEx
George Brown College's Show GBC
STAKEHOLDER INTERVIEWS
We conducted virtual interviews with Humber College's Media Communications and Web Development program co-ordinators to explore their programs, student work-sharing practices, and their views on Humber Current and its website.
Findings
- Web Development co-ordinator prefers Behance and Padlet for student work submissions.
- Media Communications co-ordinator finds it hard to locate Media Communications students on the site.
- Humber Current website received significant criticism for its visual design.
- Both coordinators agreed the website should better highlight student work.
Ideation
SKETCHING
We sketched wireframes, focusing on a minimalist design that highlighted the students' work. These sketches helped us visualize and refine our ideas going into the prototyping phase.
Prototyping
LOW-FIDELITY WIREFRAMES
When designing the low-fidelity wireframes, we prioritized UX by creating a minimalist design that highlighted the students' work, reducing distractions and unnecessary elements to enhance user experience.
STYLE GUIDE
Final Prototype
HIGH-FIDELITY WIREFRAMES
The program pages were redesigned with a minimalistic and user-friendly layout, prioritizing students' work over personal pictures. Submission pages were also designed to enhance convenience for students and streamline content moderation for administrators.
PROTOTYPE DEMO
Media Communications
Web Development
Next Steps
- Conduct more usability tests and recruit a variety of participants
- Implement usability test findings to the prototype
- Conduct user interviews with Humber College students
Reflection
It was a great experience collaborating with web development students for this project. It was exciting to brainstorm and design solutions aimed at improving an existing platform.
This process challenged me to think creatively and critically, while working with other UX students to consider various aspects and potential improvements.
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