This application was developed as a part of my capstone for the certificate in Information Science + Studies at Duke University.
The Problem
At Duke (my alma mater), there is a program that all students use to plan our their classes for the remainder of their academic career called the “What If Report.” This report is used to analyze what classes a student has taken, what classes they are planning on taken, and what major(s), minor(s), and certificate(s) they plan to graduate with. The report then tells you if you will be able to graduate with your desired degree given those classes. This system is quite confusing and often causes students a lot of stress. Many have adopted external strategies to be able to keep track of their courses. I, along with the other graduating members of the Information Science + Studies certificate, decided that this system sorely needed a re-design.
Personas
I developed personas which helped guide our team in our design
Task Model
I then created a task model to demonstrate the general process a student goes through when planning out classes
User Journey
The next step was to create a user journey of the current process a student goes through. This allowed me to highlight pain points and thus how we can get rid of or ease them in our new design.
Wireframes
I gathered the team, and using the information from the personas, task model, and user journey, we all brainstormed some visual ideas for the design.
Digital Wireframes
For the culmination of the project, I created some slightly higher-fidelity wireframes with design considerations for the future.
“What” Page
1. The top part of the page displays filters. Other filters could be added such as Semester Offered, Class Number, etc…
2. The “My Academics” tab shows the student’s current academic plan, i.e their current major/minor/certificate combination. This tab also shows what courses the student has taken to date, as well as what slots need to be filled
3. Example of a core required course that the student has already taken
4. Example of a core required course that the student has yet to take
5. Example of an empty course slot. An idea I was was that when one of these slots is clicked, the search automatically filters to the courses that would fit in this slot. These are drag-and-droppable into the slots in the “My Academics Tab”
6. The warning symbol here refers to certain stipulations surrounding a course in the category. In this example, it refers to the VMS requirement that students must take 3 VMS Electives specifically taught by VMS faculty. This warning will appear on hover.
7. The “Class Search” tab shows the courses as currently filtered. These courses were imported directly from AirTable
8. The “Course Details” tab shows up when a course is selected, and shows more detailed information about the course. Additional information could be added such as semesters offered, example syllabi, etc…
“When” Page/Tabs
This tab mimics the “My Academics” tab in the “What” page
“Other Courses” refers to courses a student wants to take that don’t specifically fit within a major/minor/certificate requirement. For example, if they need a QS course but their major doesn’t require it.
Empty schedule slot.
The “+” could be to add an extra course slot if a student is planning on overloading OR to add a Summer Session section if the student is planning ons taking courses over the summer
The courses in orange refer to courses that the student has selected in the previous step, but has not yet scheduled in their planner
The courses in green refer to courses that the student has both selected in the previous step and placed in their schedule. Note that the course is present on both the left and right
Orange again denotes courses that have not yet been placed in the schedule planner