cuesta college website redesign Process
intake
My team on this project included an account manager and dev manager. We met with several different stakeholder at Cuesta College to establish their primary concerns with the current site, objectives for the redesign and project timeline. Our design team then began brainstorming solutions for a general approach and site-plan.
brainstorm
The primary complaint we sourced from faculty and students about the old site was the lack of an efficient primary navigation. With so much information to access and an incoherent structure, users were getting lost.
We determined that the two primary groups of users were current students and prospective students. We began by identifying each group’s needs, where they overlapped and where they differed. This process led to to a plan for the primary navigation.
site planning
We decided the best approach for user experience was to load the main nav with hefty drop-downs so that users could navigate to their intended destinations with as few clicks as possible. We also decided to expand the College’s green and black color palette and assign a color to each section of the site as a way to anchor the user to a particular section and further ease site navigation.
Below, is the wire-frame product of this planning.
first round of design
Once a site plan was in place, I began the design process. Knowing navigation was going to to be key to UI / UX success, it needed to be featured prominently in the the design. I chose a palette of rich, complex colors that complemented the Cuesta logo and designed a prominent and easy to navigate sub-nav.
second round of design
Once the general look of the site was approved, I designed several interior page templates that would be built-out in programming.
Below are two examples of many of such pages.
third and final round of design
In the last round of design, I adapted the established page templates of the site for mobile devices.
Once the client was fully satisfied with the design, build-files were delivered to the programmers with detailed functionality specifications.
outcomes
This project was challenging in the planning phase but really enjoyable and fluid in the design phase. The client was very pleased with the significant improvement in user experience and vibrant look. This kept the project moving on course and made each subsequent round of design frictionless.
The final website is a vast improvement. It far better serves current students and is impressive and exciting for prospective students to browse. The new Cuesta College website is heads above its neighboring competitor, Allan Hancock College, and on par with its more prestigious neighbor Cal Poly.