CSUMB, COMMUNICATION DESIGN CAPSTONE WEBSITE
Case Study
CSU Monterey Bay requires all graduating students to participate in something called the Capstone Festival every semester in order to get their degree. At this festival, students present final projects or an accumulation of what they learned at the university. As vague as this may sound, students are told to complete a project that they believe will impress their future employer. For those who are a Communication Design(CD) major within the three major concentrations including web, visual, and game design, there are plenty of projects to choose from. However, all information on the capstone process is decentralized or non-existent for students attempting to prepare a project to meet the needs of the University. In response to this crisis, and as a current student in CD, I began the long journey of attempting to tackle this problem.
Initial research
To kick off my research I created a unified question set, interviewed CD students working on Capstone, and then simply card sorted every positive & negative. Now, to save you the pain of reading and analyzing all my graphs and journey maps, this is what I found to be true:
● Students have never heard of Capstone until the first semester of their Junior year
● Students don't know how to choose a project
● Students don't know what a completed project looks like
● Students are unaware of the current requirements and timeline
● Students don't know who to ask for help from
While these questions were very open-ended, it was more than enough for me to begin.
Personas
I then created an ideal student to represent all the interviews I conducted who will then become the focused user of my website.
Experience map
Before the design process can begin, an experience map or also known as a journey map was made to outline and highlight pain points in the current Capstone experience for my user. Based on the data the graph shows, I then created an outline of what the estimated future experience will be after creating the new website.
Comparative Analysis
I researched other products/services that are similar to my proposed solution. I tried to examine the industry trends, and search for any products or services I aspire to emulate. After digging through different university websites, I discovered Otis College of Art and Design and The University of Texas, Austin. However, above them all, I found a site that was the closest to my imagination, Boston University.
Sketches to Wireframes
Now with a concept in mind, I began laying out the pages as well as structuring and restructuring the navigation. I conducted four recorded paper prototyping sessions using the individual pieces of paper or index cards to represent each individual screen needed, for my test participant to complete the task. Taking what I learned from the sessions, I built a wireframe and completed more user testing until I felt prepared to move to a prototype.
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My Solution
Click to see it Live!
1. The homepage
Here, everything about anything capstone related can be found on this page. Scrolling past a brief explanation of what the capstone is, they find their way down to a list of requirements with expandable details. Near the end of the page, they find a series of testimonials written by alumni students on how their completed capstones have helped them begin their careers. Alongside every testimonial is a link to the project that the student completed. It shows not only the product that was created, but the process that led to that final design.
2. Project Examples Page (list of capstone links by School, Department, Major)
This page serves the purpose of assisting in the development of project ideas where users can search or filter by date or concentration. The users can also hover the images to get a quick project summary, but once clicked on, takes them to a detailed project page. Additionally, this function will showcase the entire project process, not just the final outcome, allowing users to get a clear idea on what they should be doing and how they should be doing it. Advice given by alumni can be utilized by users to prevent future mistakes or continue a beneficial technique.
3. Find a Project Page
The find a project feature allows students that have a difficult time coming up with a capstone idea or want access to a client to be able to search for available capstone projects and easily apply to work on them.
4. FAQs Page
This page serves the purpose of answering questions not covered in the classroom. Users will be able to access a library of questions other students have asked as well as submit their own question. This function will ensure that all the questions surrounding the capstone project will be answered.
