Leá Norcross
Designer | Artist | Maker
DESIGNING A STUDENT RESOURCE PORTAL
The University of Denver Graduate School of Social Work utilizes an internal website called the Student Resource Portfolio. This self-service resource was underused due to limited marketing and because it was not user-friendly. I executed a redesign to improve navigability and aesthetic appeal, and advertised the Portfolio as the best access point for documents, forms and academic information, thereby relieving some of the pressure on front-line services in providing such resources.
CLIENT | University of Denver Graduate School of Social Work
TARGET USERS | Students and Faculty
PROJECT | Redesign and maintain website
OBJECTIVES | Clear navigating, well-packaged information, branding
MY ROLE | Initiated and executed redesign, maintained
TOOLS | DU Portfolio (proprietary CMS)
Challenges
Sharing Space
The Student Resource Portfolio is a virtual space shared by several departments at the Graduate School of Social Work. I didn't have full reign over the entire site, however I was able to update the main landing page and introduce GSSW's logo and color scheme for branding clarity. The sections I had access to were:
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New Students
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PhD Program (short term access)
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Academic Services
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Concentrations
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Capstone
Working with DU Portfolio
According to their website, "DU Portfolio is a web-based application that provides electronic portfolios for students, faculty, staff, and alumni." However, it is frequently used by numerous campus groups to create resource repositories, known as Community Portfolios. The interface is similar to website design software but with limited capabilities and certain restrictions given the purpose of it's design. These were challenges to work around when my objective was to create something with the look and feel of a website.
Link to Web Doc
Downloadable Doc
BANNER | Each portfolio has a banner that can be edited but not removed. I couldn't use our logo in the banner due to size constraints; I had to select an image that was a simple underlay for the banner title. I chose a carefully cropped image of a notable stained glass window. Although not officially part of the school's branding, my hope is that the image is nonetheless iconic given its prominent position over the school's entryway.
TEXT | Text options were extremely limited for a time, but the platform provided access to the source code. With a little research I was able to force some formatting and insert dividers where I felt it was most necessary. Eventually a new formatting interface was introduced which made this much easier.
DOCUMENTS | A major obstacle with DU Portfolio is that the user can't control how linked documents display. Consequently, the visual appearance of a document can confuse the overall organization. Because they default to large text they can be confused with headers or simply muddle the design of a page. I tried to work around this by consolidating all linked documents within folders. However, some documents were downloadable and some were links to web docs. Unfortunately I was unable to make the formatting of the later mimic the former.
Creating the Academic Services Page
Designing for Simplicity
When redesigning the resource page for the Office of Academic Services, my primary goal was simplicity. I wanted students and faculty advisors to get at the info they needed without scrolling.
The challenge, however, was finding a way to organize and break out information while staying within the bounds of our designated page. That is to say, I wasn't able to create additional content pages.
My workaround was using the "folder feature" on Portfolio, which allows you to drag and drop content into a folder, and to and to open the folder as though it were an additional "page."
The formatting options are much more restricted than on the main pages of the Portfolio and content can't be transferred from the folder back into the main portfolio page, however I was able to work with these quirks.
I grouped resources by broad categories and created folders for each group. This was a vast improvement from laying everything out in the same page. There was much too much info to be easily navigable this way.
I also used the folder feature to create a "Registration Toolkit" which included numerous resources specifically geared toward Registration Day.
