We tested a new approach to webpage content layout on University webpages with prospective students, comparing it to the existing style. While we didn’t see significant improvements in effectiveness and efficiency of user performance in the tasks set, all participants strongly preferred the new proposed design when questioned at the end of the usability test. […]

In summer 2022, we used a 5-second test to understand what caught a person’s attention and what they could remember after looking at a piece of content for a short time. In this post, I reflect on the lessons my team and I learned conducting this research as part of the fees payment project.

Usability testing is a core activity in our team that all content designers are expected to help with. I only started a year ago, but I’ve already been involved in four rounds of pop-up testing, and each time I’ve learned a bit more and grown more confident with the technique. I want to share a […]

Our team went on campus during the recent Undergraduate Open Day to do some pop-up research and check some design concepts and live services with prospective students and their parents.

As part of the future degree finder project, our team has been exploring navigation options. We wanted to learn how students would interact with our degree finder content without left hand navigation. We found removing this navigation had no impact on their ability to use the site and they used alternative means to get to […]

The team came together on campus during Welcome Week to do some pop-up research with newly arrived students. It was a great way to come together as a team, and for everyone to interact first-hand with the people we’re creating digital services for.

We recently completed exploratory user research into the prospective undergraduate experience of applying to the University of Edinburgh. In this post, I share insights of an emerging theme – why prospective students want more information about what they can study.

In this post, I recap the experience of conducting online usability testing for our project with the Student Immigration Service (SIS) and share some lessons we learned about the importance of testing before a site goes live.

My team and I recently reviewed our usability testing facilitation skills through a playback of some of our test recordings. In this post, I recap why we ran the session, how we ran it and what we learned.

A term I hear too often in meetings about digital content is “signposting”. In my view it’s a cop out and it’s incredibly damaging to the student experience. We need to focus on students’ task success instead.