The Student Hub is a desktop and mobile-friendly launchpad to help students easily navigate and keep track of their busy academic and active daily lives as university students in the Northeastern community.
As a product designer, I collaborated closely with product managers, a digital experience lead, and a UX manager on various projects throughout the year. I led the redesign of the News and Events section in the Hub and was a part of the "My Interest" feature, allowing students to follow peers with shared interests.
Timeline
Team
Jane
Surbhi
Panth
Sagar
Tools
Figma
FigJam
Mural
Disciplines
Summary
Making connections at Northeastern is easier! We're revamping the Student Hub so you can choose your interests and find clubs and classmates who share them
We've introduced tag sections in the Student Hub to give you more control over your interests. Now, students can add specific details to their passions, making it easier to find classmates who share their exact interests.
Does the Hub offer enough tools for students to find classmates with shared interests?
Currently, students have to fill out a survey form in the student hub, which helps them connect with other students and personalize their experience based on the survey insights.
Problem
Surveys in the "interest" section are filled out, but the information isn't shown or used to help students connect or get personalized suggestions
Through Interviews with new and current Northeastern students across various majors, we tried to identify their pain points
80% of Students don’t fill this survey form. There is no clue about how this information is utilised or helping them to connect with other people
Students can filter people by the name & the places associated with the profile, but nothing is displayed wrt interest section
Goal
How Might We make connecting with classmates based on shared interests on the Northeastern Student Hub seamless and efficient?
Current and future Huskies often want to connect with others who share their interests. As a result, we want to make it easy for Northeastern students, both new and returning, to find classmates with similar interests, no matter where they're from in the U.S. or the world!
Redesigning Profile Section
To improve search and Discoverability
Introducing tags
Help students search with more specific interests
Ideate
Problems with the current flow
Categories like "law" or "travel" might not be relevant to every student's interests. This can lead to feeling like the survey doesn't capture their specific needs.
Based on all the insights we got from students, we brainstormed the possible solutions with other team members and stakeholders, and we narrowed down on tags & improved visibility as they empower students to express their interests and make connections more easily.
User Flow ( Proposed Flow)
How can we effectively categorize interests for over 30,000 students spanning diverse majors and backgrounds?
We went to Users Again!!. In-depth conversations with students across various majors and backgrounds helped us pinpoint the most prominent and diverse interests within Northeastern.
Design Iterations
Alongside introducing new interest tags, we aimed to streamline the profile section layout on Student Hub. Our goal was, that users could seamlessly and quickly locate what they were looking for without undue effort.
Before
After
Tag Explorations
My Top Tags
Fitness & Wellness
Coding
Writing
Initial Iteration
My Top Tags
Volunteer
Creative Writing
Networking
Competition
Fitness & Wellness
Coding
Final Iteration
We wanted to stick with the current design system while designing any new feature, students can select 6 top tags , which will be displayed in their profile section on the hub
Final design
Helping Students to personalize their profile through tags
Now, if a student wants to search for another student, he just goes to the discover section and filters students according to their specific Interests
Learnings
Learning from Diverse Collaboration
In my first UX job in the US, working with a diverse team showed me how different viewpoints are super valuable. It helped me understand design and user needs better, which made me more creative and innovative
The Power of User-Centric Design
Throughout my journey in UX, one of the most valuable lessons I've learned is the importance of going back to users. Every time we engage with users, whether through research, testing, or feedback sessions, we gain invaluable insights that drive the design process forward
Let’s Chat
Panth Shah
Product Designer