Rhode Island School of Design
Rhode Island School of Design (“RISD”) is a private art and design school in Providence, Rhode Island.
How does RISD enhance its user experience while shifting its existing website to a new content management system without making updates to its existing information architecture?
The Problem
Rhode Island School of Design approached us to perform a “lift & shift” from a Site Studio content management system to a Drupal content management system. However, after performing a content audit of the existing website, I flagged that the current navigation is not intuitive for their users. I advocated for an enhanced navigation structure without discarding their existing information architecture.
My role
I am the sole UX designer on an Agile team of two back-end developer, one front-end developer, two account managers, an SEO analyst, a project manager and a quality engineer. I am responsible for creating the content audit and navigation recommendation using Axure and Google Sheets.
My Proposed Solution(s)
The analytical assessment showed that all of the main navigation tabs receive a good amount of traffic, but the content on the pages performs poorly. The pages perform poorly because the content is generic for all users rather than targeted by each user. I decided to restructure the navigation to optimize way-finding for all users: current students, faculty, staff, parents, alumni and friends.
Challenges I faced
During the navigation discussion, I advocated for a complete restructuring of RISD’s information architecture. I felt that a new information architecture would enhance the user experience and allow for the creation of taxonomy structures in the back-end. Ultimately, this idea was not pursued due to budget and scope constraints.
My Measures of Success
Because users will be able to find information relevant to them, we anticipate exit rates to decrease tremendously. We also anticipate stronger search engine optimization.
What I learned
Because of this project, I learned the importance of advocating for a better user experience, even if it isn’t in budget or scope. The updates to the navigation will ensure a more seamless user experience as well as an enhanced website performance.
