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Harvard University Student Health Plan 

A website for Harvard University students to enroll in health care benefits through the university.

Lead UX Researcher

Role

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Timeline

2 Months

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Toolkit

Optimal Workshop (Treejack)

Voyant Tools

Figma

Basecamp

A mockup of the final prototype for the HUSHP case study.

Summary

For this case study, Harvard University's Student Health Plan (HUSHP) wanted to transition from an older CMS platform to CampusPress.  To better support this transition and their users, the client also desired an updated version of their website, influenced by their users.

Employing a qualitative and quantitative research approach, we aimed to learn what information users sought, their website usage patterns, and their perceptions of the website's navigation. By delving deep into user needs and sentiments, this research project aimed to inform the development of an enhanced user experience, ultimately meeting the client's goal of a user-friendly navigation aligned with their users' expectations.

Client Goals

  • Improve the website's information architecture from user insights.

  • Identify MVP content through content strategy.

  • Consolidate a robust IA by removing replicated content.

  • Mitigate any unclear language.

  • Migrate content from the old CMS (Open Scholar) to the new CMS  (CampusPress).

User Groups

  • Harvard Students

Research Methods

Tree Study for Improved IA

The first step in this study was to replicate the website's IA using Figma to create a sitemap. Then, we began the investigation with a tree study using Optimal Workshop's TreeJack feature. The study was not only used to learn about the users' experiences but to also test our hypothesis on the current state of the IA. Our theory was that the IA included a lot of cross linking, an over abundance of information, and unclear language, negatively impacting the user experience.

The sitemap provided a space for the client to communicate and also stay informed about the IA. This space was also used to build each iteration of the website's IA as it developed overtime from the tree study results, user feedback, and client input.

An embedded Figma diagram replicating the original HUSHP website's IA, accompanied by user feedback from a tree study. To inspect the diagram closer, click the expand view function in the top right corner of the diagram.

With over 400 participants, we obtained a large amount of data to explore.  In addition to testers completing the tree study, they were also asked to provide their overall experience of the current website in an open-ended response format.

To kick off the analysis of the open-ended responses, I used text the analysis tool VoyantTools, to identify the most common themes reported by users. From there, I used the results to develop themes for a coding approach. These themes categorized the users' general level of satisfaction with the platform and why.

A mockup of the final prototype of the HUSHP case study.

User Feedback

After analyzing the user provided data from the tree study, we found that...

11%

of users found the interface user friendly

21%

of users found the current interface confusing

of users had difficulty accessing the right information

29%

37%

of users found the current IA's labels confusing

A mockup of the mobile interface for the final HUSHP prototype.

Outcome

After three iterations of the IA, it was finalized into the below sitemap. To navigate the below Figma diagram, click the magnify plus and minus buttons in the bottom right corner or click the expand button in the upper right corner for a full view.

An embedded Figma diagram replicating the final iteration of the HUSHP website's IA. This outcome was developed from a combination of data gathered from user feedback and navigation related data collected from Optimal Workshop.

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