Central
European
University
Research + Strategy
CEU is an institution of advanced research and education headquartered in Vienna, Austria.
The President reached out with a research-based project — to study the user experience of their existing public facing website ecosystem comprising of 60+ independent sites.
My job was to carry out an audit, conduct user research and design a strategy to go about improving the user experience.
Principle-driven approach
User experience research serves two — the people who use products and the makers of said products.
We must build empathy & understanding for both sets of people and set to create experiences that aim to enable both.
Creating a process to
audit 60+ websites
Studying 60+ sites of varying complexity and purpose under a month is a difficult task to carry out at a high level.
I solved this problem through simplifying each site’s construction down to the type of page.
Understanding the people who use and maintain the website
I conducted over 20 user interviews and usability tests that provided clarity on what should be done, who should be prioritised, and where the focus should be.
Knowledge gained from studying the website and it’s users was used to empower the organisation to take steps towards improving the experience of both using and maintaining the university website ecosystem.
Defining an execution & decision-making framework
After two months of rigorous studying and analysis I designed a comprehensive strategy that would act as a decision-making framework for the web team at CEU.
This document dictated how UX would support the website’s improvement for students, faculty, donors and achievement of associated business objectives.
Disruption as a means of standing out
Today’s organisations have yet to leverage the benefits that come with understanding the people they serve and building for their success.
However, CEU brings a positive disruption to the widespread mentality of “if it ain’t broke, don’t change it”.
Acknowledgements
Special thanks to Prof. Shalini Randeria for providing the opportunity to work with CEU.
Designing for the betterment of people.