Empathize

What is CityU?

Since 1973, City University of Seattle has been relentlessly reimagining higher education in the Pacific Northwest and around the world. As an accredited, private, nonprofit university, our mission is to provide career-relevant education to busy professionals who want to advance their careers and compete in the global marketplace.

I am going to take you on a journey on how I redesign CitU’s website. I have documented the process, my thoughts, methods, wireframes, prototypes, and finally the live site. The design process that I followed goes through five stages of user centered design: Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype, and Test.

Who is the Audience for CityU?

Working Professional

• CityU serves the working professional, an individual who is pursuing a promotion or career change while juggling family and/or a full-time job that makes pursuing a degree for them feel particularly difficult.

• The average CityU student is between 37-45, with 62% of their audience being female.

• These are working professionals that are potentially dealing with a desire for “career shifting”; they want to pivot to a different industry for various reasons.

• There are also people who are wanting to go further into their career—who need to go back because they want to grow in their industry.

• These prospective students want more in their lives — they’re seeing a lot of change around them, and they’re staying the same. They want to be part of the evolution.

• The CItyU prospective student is someone who understands that it might be “hard”, but they refuse to be a part of the pack. They’re hard workers – and want to contribute to the world in their own unique way. CityU serves as the catalyst for this.

International Student

• The international student is a traditional college student in their beginning years of education, typically between 18-24.

• These students are go-getters – they are willing to do whatever it takes: study the long hours, stack courses and/or work late nights if that’s what it takes. 

• These are individuals with entrepreneurial spirits and goals – and they’re often one of the first to get a college degree in their family or leave the country.

• These students are driven by their home country pride, providing opportunity for their family or futures.

• They want to know how the university is going to support their education, but their careers. 

• Passion-driven, and determined to succeed, these are individuals that need to feel as though they are surrounded by faculty who care about their future, like more than a number.

Why does CityU’s website need a redesign?

After a careful analysis of the CityU website, drafted from our analytics team, we drew the following conclusion of why it needed a redesign:

• Streamlining their messaging towards the working adult and transfer student. Currently, “all about the finish” leaves students feeling like the only thing CityU cares about is finishing their degree. 

• Simplifying the UX experience – currently, unless you know what you were looking for, it is a struggle to find what you’re looking for. 

• Revisit the content to be more concise and a more distinctive brand voice for CityU.

• Evolving design to be more modern, image-forward and Seattle-focused – all colors, fonts and imagery up for change.