BYU Public School Partnership

An Experience that Re-envisions University and K-12 Collaboration

Project Overview

The BYU Public School Partnership, an organization fostering a collaboration between BYU and five local public school districts, were looking for an updated and increased online presence. Given that the partnership covers 227 schools, over 182,000 students and 8,000 teachers, it was imperative that they have a user friendly website.

User Research

Most user research was done through Google Analytics and Crazy Egg. Highlights include:

Analytics showed poor intra-site navigation and low page views for program pages.

Bounce rates for most pages were disturbingly high.

There were problems distinguishing the BYU Partnership from its parent department.

User Journey and Website Flow

With the goal of providing information to users quickly, we redesigned the structure of the website.

Easier navigation to conferences pages, which are the most popular on the site.

Reworked program and events organization on the navigation page to make subsections crystal clear.

Detailed "About us" pages emphasizing the Partnership brand and what they do.

Top programs and events listed on the landing page.

Wireframes

The goal of our wireframing was to create page layouts that were simple and elements that provided concise information to users. After creating hundreds of wireframes, we landed on a simple design that properly split up information using large headings and cards for navigation. Wireframe testing was done in survey form.

Programs page wireframe
Program content page wireframe
Endorsement content wireframe

UI Design

After thousands of iterations, three full designs, and multiple client meetings, we landed on a professional style that incorporates our client's brand colors in an interactive experience. Design highlights:

Bold colors with a more corporate and less playful feel.

Designed for laptop, with mobile responsiveness.

Bright colors and crisp cards to draw attention to navigation and information.

Home Page Finished
Programs Page
Endorsement content

Learnings

This particular case study provided me with the opportunity to learn more about client communication and using consistent design standards across a website. I was the primary contact between the team and the client. I communicated weekly and also participated in four meetings with our client over the course of the project. Understanding what the client wants and needs is essential to getting good work done; without a specific client-led focus, days of work can be wasted.

Designing the entire website allowed for the use of a design system. This project helped me to learn how to think about consistency and standardization on a daily basis and challenge our graphic designer to stay within the realm of possibility.

Programs page wireframe