The Challenge
The University of Chicago has 18 different biological sciences division (BSD) graduate programs, which are organized into a combination of clusters, committees, and departments. The Office of Graduate and Postdoctoral Affairs hoped to redesign its existing website in order to more clearly represent the structure and organization of its graduate programs, and also make the program more appealing and recruit more high-quality graduate students. The client asked our team to conduct a discovery project to determine whether combining all 18 graduate programs into one website would help them achieve their objectives.
Discovery
I worked with the client to identify 6 stakeholders for interviews. I interviewed the following roles: Director of Planning, BSD Dean’s Office; Professor of Ecology and Evolution; a Professor of Molecular Genetics and Cell Biology, two graduate students, and a postdoctoral researcher.
The Biological Sciences Division graduate program websites consisted of one Office of Graduate and Postdoctoral Affairs website and a total 18 different websites for all graduate clusters, committees, and departments. A stakeholder named the following main challenges with the current website presence:
Many BSD websites duplicate the same information (i.e., “things to do in Chicago”)
Different departments have contracted with different website design/development vendors, and this has resulted in sites that differ greatly in quality and maintainability.
The BSD graduate program structure and web presence confuses some prospective students, and this leads them to make uninformed decisions about a BSD graduate program, or perhaps to not apply at all.
The current name of the Graduate and Postdoctoral Affairs office sounds bureaucratic and may not be appearing in search results for a specific BSD graduate program.
Overview
Duration
3 months
Role
UX Researcher
Methodologies
Stakeholder Interviews, User Interviews, Competitive Analysis
Learn More
View Discovery Brief (Google Doc)
Original Biological Sciences Division Office of Graduate and Postdoctoral Affairs website. Original URL: http://gradprograms.bsd.uchicago.edu/. Archived in a June 17, 2015 capture from the WayBack Machine: https://web.archive.org/.
Original Cancer Biology graduate program section of the Biomedical Sciences website. Original URL: http://biomedsciences.uchicago.edu/page/cancer-biology. Archived in a September 10, 2015 capture from the WayBack Machine: https://web.archive.org/
User Research: Is 1 Website > 18 websites?
In order to test the client’s assumption that combining the 18 different Biological Sciences Division graduate program into one comprehensive website will attract a larger pool of high-quality graduate students, I put a peer site that combines several biological sciences graduate programs in front of some current University of Chicago Biological Sciences graduate students. Here are the graduate students’ impressions of the Washington University Biological Sciences website:
An umbrella website makes it seem like students come out with a general biological sciences degree, which is less desirable than a PhD in a specialization.
It makes the program seem smaller since there is only one site.
Specializations seem like they have less weight, and programs lose their individual character.
This umbrella site hides or buries programs.
The navigation structure required by this type of site is confusing and hard to use.
Students had the following general feedback on the idea of combining all program sites into one website:
Extremely competitive applicants know what they want to study, and will not be “comparison shopping” or need to see a comprehensive list of all programs offered by BSD. Really competitive people already work in a lab in the field and know what they want to study.
An integrated website may bury information about specific programs, and it may take a prospective student longer to find that information.
Risks
Before detailing recommendations, I summarized risks to the client’s proposed 18-websites-in-one approach:
Students found an integrated website a less attractive presentation of programs
Students looking for a particular program (and these students tend to be the stronger applicants) may have a harder time finding the desired program
Site maintenance may be difficult and require complex workflows
Recommendations
Keeping in mind the BSD’s goals of attracting more and stronger applicants to its various programs and presenting a less confusing program structure, I recommended the following alternative to the 18-websites-in-one approach:
Revamp the Graduate and Postdoctoral Affairs site to include more detailed information about each program, and show how each program fits into the larger structure and context of the Biological Sciences Division.
Rename the Graduate and Postdoctoral Affairs website to reflect a focus on program offerings rather than identify an administrative unit.
Create a base website template to use for each the 18 biosciences programs with the following features:
Standardized site architecture that includes links back to the overarching Biosciences website
Redundant information (i.e., living in Chicago) will be removed from individual program sites and relocated to the Biosciences umbrella site. Program sites will link to this information on the main Biosciences website.
Ability to view faculty associated with the program and filter them by research interests.
Results
The client ended up following the recommendations in my discovery brief and engaged the Web Services team to build an umbrella UChicago Biosciences website as well as a template for the 18 biosciences programs.
Homepage of redesigned UChicago Biosciences website
Graduate programs landing page
Cancer Biology graduate program summary page on the new UChicago Biosciences website
Committee on Cancer Biology website using the new Biosciences graduate program template