path@penn
one-one career guidance app
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Summary
Path@Penn is the student course registration portal at Penn, but navigating it wasn’t always seamless. Through in-depth user research—including surveys and interviews—I uncovered key pain points, user goals, and behavioral insights. Using these findings, I redesigned the landing page to enhance functionality, streamline navigation, and improve the overall user experience.
Problem
To identify key usability challenges, I began by developing a user interview discussion guide to structure my research. The primary users—undergraduate and graduate students, administrators, and faculty—each had unique needs and frustrations. Through three in-depth interviews and surveys, I uncovered critical pain points. Using affinity diagramming in FigJam, I synthesized the user insights into clear themes, shaping the foundation for my redesign.
Building on my research, I conducted in-depth user interviews that provided valuable external feedback on Path@Penn’s pain points. A recurring theme emerged—users found the functionality and navigation confusing, while also expressing a strong desire for greater personalization. However, users acknowledged improvements in the UI compared to Penn InTouch, the previous course registration portal. To further analyze these pain points and identify areas for enhancement, I conducted a heuristic evaluation of Path@Penn.
Optimizing Path@Penn: Simplified Navigation & Enhanced Usability
Low-Fidelity UI Wireframes
Simplifying & Enhancing Usability
User research revealed that many tools on Path@Penn felt redundant or were rarely used. For example, the “View Schedule” and “Add/Drop Courses” functions served nearly identical purposes. However, instead of arbitrarily removing tools, I recognized the importance of data-driven decision-making.
To balance usability and personalization, I introduced a customizable tool hierarchy, allowing users to pin their most-used functions to the top of the landing page. This approach ensures that essential tools remain accessible while minimizing clutter, making navigation more intuitive.
UI Enhancements: A Clearer, More Focused Design
While interviewees acknowledged improvements over Penn InTouch (the previous system), they expressed dissatisfaction with the landing page’s cluttered layout and low-quality imagery. Many users found the background distracting rather than useful.
To address this, I opted for a cleaner, minimalistic layout by removing unnecessary images and visually grouping content. This refined structure improves scannability, making it easier for users to absorb information at a glance while maintaining a more polished, modern aesthetic
Prototype: A Streamlined & Personalized Experience
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In designing the prototype, I prioritized UI simplicity, personalization, and a modern aesthetic to enhance usability. My goal was to create a clean, intuitive interface while maintaining flexibility for different user needs.
Key Design Decisions:
✔ Personalized Functionality: Instead of assuming which tools users would want to remove, I introduced a customization feature, allowing them to tailor their dashboard.
✔ Customizable Widgets: Users can modify sidebar widgets such as calendar, degree audit, events, and messages for a more personalized experience.
✔ Clear Page Structure: The landing page is divided into three distinct sections—Favorites, General Tools, and Widgets—to create a more structured, intuitive layout.
✔ Refined UI Aesthetic: I opted for a modern sans-serif typeface, rounded corners, and reduced visual clutter to create a more inviting and user-friendly design.
This prototype aims to make Path@Penn more efficient, flexible, and easy to navigate while providing users with a seamless registration experience.