CHALLENGE:
PhD students often face a difficult path both academically and personally. Radical PhD desired to learn new ways their website could help ease the burden for students.
SOLUTION:
Based on research, I created three prototypes for new features to the Radical PhD website.
METHODS: User Journey Map | Rapid Prototyping | Annotated Wireframes | Kano Model Analysis
TOOLS: Sketch | Keynote
Client
After 20 years of experience in academia, and serving on several committees, Dr. Aida Martinez-Freeman knows the challenges PhD students face. Many spend the years during dissertation feeling alone, navigating the violence of the academy and struggling to make headway; all while their physical, mental and social well-being declines. In an effort to positively impact the experience for doctoral students, she created Radical PhD - a suite of tools, resources and coaching services to help guide them to defending their dissertation and graduation.
With the beta version of the website in place, the Radical PhD team wanted to discover areas of opportunity that exist on the site, as well as learn about any new features that could move the mission of Radical PhD forward.
Approach
I completed a cognitive walkthrough of the site, followed by an interview with Dr. Aida about the genesis of Radical PhD and the mission. The foundation of the site is solid, but there are areas where enhanced features could offer more resources and grow the sense of community. From this, the ideation process began and produced many great ideas.
We met with Dr. Aida and her development team to discuss these ideas and get a sense of the development time each would take. Several of the most well-received ideas were presented to a group of PhD students and potential Radical PhD website users, via a Kano analysis. A Kano seeks to understand the relative positive or negative aspect of the addition of feature ideas, based on user feedback.
FEATURE CARDSD FOR KANO
Recommendations and High-fidelity Prototypes:
Based on the research, several ideas for development were presented and high-fidelity prototypes were created.
PROTOTYPE 1:
The first is a Meal Share Group feature. Meal preparation can take quite a bit of time, so offering a way to share the burden of this task was rated highly during the Kano evaluation. It also aides in the goal of connecting students and fostering community. This would be an additional page to the website, would link to a database of recipes, and the Message Board. It also requires the creation of an additional message group.
PROTOTYPE 2:
The next proposed feature is Coaches Corner. This page offers videos of each Radical PhD coach discussing topics they are both knowledgeable and passionate about. Kano analysis indicated this would be a favorable feature. This would be an additional page to the website, would link to CMS to house videos.
PROTOTYPE 3:
Additionally, I recommended a Testimonial page shows videos of students who received coaching services, and other users of the site. These videos can highlight isolation and marginalization experienced by many students. They can also show how the entire experience offered at Radical PhD changed each student’s path. The addition of this feature was rated highly in the Kano evaluation. This would be an additional page to the website, would link to CMS to house videos.
Final Thoughts:
Radical PhD is striving to change the experience of PhD students by creating a supportive online community with resources to help improve overall health, offer dissertation coaching and provide free resources. The current website has a great foundation and the addition of the proposed new features will help bring that goal to fruition.