With universities being forced to operate remotely due to Covid-19, UAL needed an alternative to their famous graduate showcase. At short notice and with only 6 weeks to deliver, I was brought on as UX lead to craft and deliver the experience.
How do you create a site that is structured enough to navigate, while also allowing 7000 art students the freedom to express themselves through 290 courses?
The research happened over two main phases and engaged 100+ stakeholders:
In the workshop I engaged with both student and staff stakeholders from UAL, as well as SMEs in delivering digital products for Universities. Together, we mapped how different personas experienced the physical degree show.
The user interviews focussed on understanding what students felt they needed from a showcase - what would make the digital show a success? And what would cause it to fail?
With only 6 weeks, delivery cadence and structure was important to define asap.
I ran single week design sprints alongside the two week development sprints - this successfully allowed us to deliver quality designs quickly without compromising process.
The Graduate Showcase launched in Spring of 2020 and allowed thousands of students to showcase their work to the world.UAL will continue to use The Graduate Showcase alongside their physical shows into the future, allowing a wider reach for both the university and it’s students.
