Financial Aid Pages Web Redesign
UMB Information Architecture and Student Financial Page Redesign
Process
Client
Category
Role
Project URL
https://rb.gy/g1junl1. Problem:
This project aimed to find out how to best redesign the University of Maryland at Baltimore’s (UMB) financial aid page for students. The university was having trouble with students finding, using, and understanding the financial aid pages. This poor user experience led to students having issues when paying tuition for their courses, which in turn cost UMB.
2. Website Audit and Competitive Analysis
This project began with a website audit. Every single page was audited and processed in Excel. The goal was to use information architecture to analyze the University of Maryland, Baltimore, and Financial Aid website structure, organization, and labeling so changes could be made. From there, we went into competitive analysis. We analyzed five other University’s financial pages and compared them to our audit.
3. Personas
Then, I went about creating personas. I kept the students and their needs in mind. I thought about what students most need to know. What must be readily accessible for the students using the financial aid page? They would want to know the difference between a loan and a scholarship. They would want to know how to best apply for grants and scholarships.
4. Card Sorting
The next step was user testing. I decided on card sorting to test how users would sort the category titles and see how users group the categories. I used Optimal Workshop to create the card sorting. I sent out an email to students asking them to participate. I had 29 respondents, and out of 29, 18 completed the study. There were several key findings from this study. First was the median number of categories created by users, which was seven categories. Secondly, while looking at the similarity matrix, I noticed that the lower the percentage in the similarity matrix was, the more random the pairing was for users. Thirdly, participants grouped cards based on what was included in the title card. Participants found that categories for school programs and loans were easiest to sort.
5. New Site Map
Then, after analyzing the card sorting results in Optimal Workshop. I used that user data to create a new site map for the financial aid pages. The main navigation has 8 categories, much less than the original site and close to the 7 categories users chose in the card sorting.
6. Wireframes
After completing the new site map, I went into wireframes. First, sketching by hand. Then, after many iterations, the wireframes in Figma are finally created. The wireframes allowed me to introduce our top navigation, new organization, and images. These wireframes helped the IT department plan their new website, which is being launched 2025
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