NYU Albert is an essential online platform for students at New York University, as it is used to register for courses.
However, the platform has a range of UX problems that make it difficult to use and navigate, leading to frustration and wasted time. As a result, students often have to resort to using additional websites such as Rate My Professor, Coursicle, and Calendar alongside Albert, making the process confusing and time-consuming.
PROBLEM STATEMENT
Students rely on MULTIPLE websites and applications to do their course selection.
Albert is not self-sufficient and is difficult to navigate.
Albert is not self-sufficient and is difficult to navigate.
I began my user research by observing and documenting the user flow of students doing their course registration.
The most common flow I found is displayed below:
- Using the class search feature on Albert and looking through the classes offered. People often used Ctrl + F to find their major instead of the filter or search bar.
- After finding a class that the user was interested in, they would go to Rate My Professor to see what people were saying about the professors and look at the difficulty rating. Some users also used additional sites such as Coursicle to find out more information about the class.
- Going back to Albert, once the user found a class they were interested in with a good Rate My Professor rating and a time that fits into their schedule, they add the course to their shopping cart and then repeat these first three steps until they’ve filled up their schedule.
- Once the user has chosen all of their classes, they use an external site to put the classes into a Calendar app or Coursicle so they can visualize what their schedule looks like (how long between classes, how many classes a day, etc).
User Interview Takeways
NYU Albert could consider rearranging the shopping cart so that courses are listed in chronological order, allowing students to view their schedule effectively. There can be a list view as well as a timetable view so users can go back and forth.
NYU Albert could optimize the spacing and layout of the platform to ensure that all the necessary information is visible at once. Instead of opening a pop up view of the course search, maybe the Course Search link could navigate to a new page from the Home page.
The courses can be displayed in separate boxes that show a clear visual hierarchy: the name, then the professor and time, then description and other information such as credits, instruction mode, component, etc. There can also be professor ratings and other course evaluation information so that students don’t have to user Rate My Professor alongside Albert.
High-fidelity wireframes