YES! Website
For the School of Design grad show
Elevating the graduation show promotion through improved usability and engagement.
As a member of the website committee, I collaborated with fellow designers to improve the graduation showcase website. I led the usability testing team during the research phase, and I was in charge of designing the Work and Events page. The usability score increased from () to (percentage).
Role
UX/UI Design
UX Research
QA
Tools
Figma
Figjam
Notion
Team
4 Designers
1 Developer
Duration
3 months
Background
The Year End Show (YES!) is an annual event held at George Brown College. Every year, members of the committee work on a part of the event they wish to help. The project began with extensive user research and ended with a successful deployment with the help of professors. The redesigned website enabled visitors to easily access access information about the graduating students and the event.
Project Scope
Improving the usability and accessibility of the George Brown College Year End Show (YES!) website to better showcase student work and event information.
Process
Preparing for another year of launch!
The website committee got together to plan the website redesign project at the beginning of the Winter semester. With a fixed launch date for the event, we had a strict 3-month timeframe, so we had almost no flexibility. Every week, there were committee meetings that involved checking progress and ensuring everyone was in alignment. A 3 month time frame was not short, but it also was not long.
Problem
Despite its visual appeal, the previous year's website faced significant usability challenges, leading to confusion for users navigating event details and affecting their overall experience.
How Might We
How might we redesign the website to be user-friendly and accessible, ensuring users can easily navigate event information and connect with featured graduates?
Personal Challenge
As 3rd and 4th students, we faced the challenge of balancing our academic workload with the demands of this website redesign project. Mid-semester, a couple of members left due to heavy academic workload, so we were left with fewer members to complete the project.
Collaboration in sub-groups based on deliverables.
Being a group of designers, everyone was familiar with the UX process and how crucial conducting research was before jumping into redesign. Since we had a larger group in the beginning, we got into groups of 3 for primary research. Each group then presented their research findings, which were used for brainstorming solutions.
Transforming user data into tangible goals
Task Completion
90% or higher
Error Reduction
30% or less
User Satisfaction
4.0 or higher
Conducting remote usability testing provided valuable insights into user pain points, allowing us to set measurable goals and assess the redesign's success. Participants were given a realistic scenario to perform tasks, which was to find information on the graduation showcase. The data we gathered directly informed our design decisions, making sure the final product aligned with user expectations.
Creating a component library to accelerate development
Consistency was crucial between members working on different parts of the design. With just weeks until launch, we had to minimize extensive design QA reviews before development. Since I had experience in making design systems, I was asked to create a component library that provided a centralized resource of reusable design elements, streamlining our workflow.
Elevated the user experience by simplifying navigation and improving accessibility, ensuring seamless engagement for event attendees.
As a group, our solution focused on intuitive navigation and enhanced accessibility. Below are the final designs for the Work page and Events page, which I was responsible for!
Improved student work visibility and navigation.
The Work page features improved navigation with an organized layout, better filter visibility and a prominent search bar, allowing users to easily browse through projects.
Simplified event browsing and information access.
The Events page minimizes scrolling by enabling users to expand/collapse relevant info, with details such as date, time, location, and directions clearly presented.
Achieving tangible outcomes.
Following the successful website launch and the conclusion of the grad showcase, we conducted a second round of usability testing to compare the new design with the previous version.
93%
Achieved a 93% user satisfaction rate
82%
Met an 82% overall performance score
82%
Met an 82% overall performance score
Embracing user-centered iteration.
Although this was a student-led project, it was an end-to-end project that I was proud to be a part of. It was an opportunity to take on multiple roles such as UX researcher, UX designer, and UI designer all at once!
Starting from usability tests and analyzing user insights to ending with QA and deployment, the YES! website redesign helped me significantly grow as a designer in a short span of time. Being a 4th year student, working on this project while balancing various tasks during busy semesters was both challenging and rewarding. However, working alongside like-minded individuals who believe in practice and growth helped me stay wanting to learn more and do more.
Another key lesson I learned was the importance of task delegation. When some members had to leave the committee mid-project due to school commitments, their tasks were reassigned to the remaining team. This required us to regroup and go through another round of planning to ensure nothing fell behind.
There were also times when committee members disagreed on design choices. During these times, we used a pen and paper to sketch out our ideas, which made me realize the effectiveness of traditional tools in collaborative brainstorming. In the future, I hope to join another non-profit project with other passionate individuals where I'm given creative freedom. Next time, I'm excited to create more wild and futuristic experiences that incorporate AI.
