Benson Idahosa University student mobile app redesign — UX case study
About Benson Idahosa University?
Benson Idahosa University is a private university located in Benin, Edo State, Nigeria. It is managed by Bishop F.E.B Idahosa of Church Of God mission international who took over as President from his father and founder, Arch Bishop Benson Idahosa of blessed memories. It officially started operations in 2002 with 4 faculties, a number that has currently doubled. Learn more at BIU official website.
Why Benson Idahosa University?
Fairly recently, Benson Idahosa University launched their student mobile application which let students pay fees, view the academic calendar, etc. Although the application effectively served the purpose it was developed, I felt the user experience and user interface of the application was not so good. Further research through personal interviews with other students further established my assumption that the UI needed to be improved. I am also a proud alumnus of the university as part of the class of 2020/2021 from the department of electrical/electronic engineering, so I felt a need to positively improve an aspect of my alma mater, hence a motivation for this study.
Project Overview
Redesigning the application with the core objective of streamlining the user onboarding process, simplify the school fees payment process and improving the overall aesthetics of the application.
My goals
- Improve the overall user experience.
- Design a flow for students to easily and efficiently pay school-related fees.
- Design a screen for students to easily check the academic calendar for the current and past academic sessions.
- Improve the usability by making the app more user-friendly.
My roles
- UX Research
- UI Design
- Wireframing
- Interaction Design
- Prototyping
Choice of tools
- Figma
- Protopie
My design process
Understanding the user
The first step in my design process is to understand the user. I conducted student interviews, which helped me to identify areas of improvement and correct the biases I had on the current design.
Challenges
From user research, I categorized the problems users were facing and came up with core experience challenges.
Below are some findings of the challenges users were facing:
- User experience: The application should have a great user experience since it has the potential to be a very vital means of advertisement to the institution, and can also help push the overall university brand identity. It ought to be useful and desirable and should be the ‘go to’ solution for most, if not all, BIU students.
- Aesthetics and user interface: The look and feel of the application should provoke brand identity and look professional, well thought out and inviting.
- Useful: The application should effectively address user pain points and solve problems users might have.
Use cases
I created some use cases to help identify possible scenarios a user will want to perform tasks with the application, to also help understand the user’s line of thought when they open the application.
- My school fees payment is due, I need to pay 60% of my fees so that I can sit for the first semester exams.
- My coursework is becoming bulky, I need to know when exam week starts so that I can better plan my study time.
- My assignments are almost due, I need to send in my paper so that I can be graded for it.
User story
Once the use cases had been identified, I went on to craft user stories from the research I conducted.
- As a freshman, I want to log in by using my newly acquired matriculation number and password so that I can fully benefit from the platform.
- As a final year student, I want to easily complete my graduation clearance requirements so that I can be eligible to obtain a certificate.
- As a student, I want to pay my fees so that I can be allowed to sit for examinations.
- As an engineering student, I want to have access to learning resources for my courses so that I can stay ahead of my class.
These user stories helped reinforce the user perspective and thought process in order to inform my designs.
Persona
The user personas are fictional characters of the users that will likely use the product. It reinforces the ideology that a user should be front and center of the design lifecycle and should be based on user research.
Starting the design process
Paper sketching
Taking the time to come up with various iterations on paper wireframes ensured that the components that made it to the digital wireframes adequately addressed the user’s pain points. It also helped me brainstorm quickly in an inexpensive and low commitment approach.
Digital wireframes
After sketching was complete, I used the ideas generated to design a clean digital wireframe with preferred components from my sketches.
Low fidelity prototype
I took the digital wireframes and connected the screens to make a low fidelity prototype of the application. The low fidelity prototype showcased the onboarding flow and screen hierarchy of the design. This lo-fi prototype helped me conduct an initial usability test on users to get insights that will be applied to the high fidelity designs.
You can view the lo-fi prototype:
Final high fidelity designs (mockups)
After designing and testing the wireframes and low fidelity prototypes respectively, I moved on to the transformation of the wireframes into high fidelity designs.
Onboarding flow
Current experience had no onboarding flow which is very important for users to quickly understand the capabilities of the application, and connect with the intended user experience. I designed the flow with the intention for it to be as simple and straightforward as possible, with the login page mimicking that of the web student portal, by logging in with their matriculation number and password.
Home screen
The current home screen was vague, with little to no interaction and hierarchy. It had a top image that did not in any way contribute to the experience. I felt it was added to reduce the amount of white space caused by the lack of content.
Fees payment flow
I wanted to design the fees payment flow to be very similar to how it’s usually done. The university offers 60% and 30% payment options, and hostel choices while paying fees. So I broke down the flow to enable users to easily understand the processes involved.
Other screens
Interactive prototype and usability testing
What I learned
It was a fun experience redesigning the application. I got to reinforce core user experience and user design principles. I learned how to redesign an application from an already existing application by identifying areas of improvement.
Next steps
In the future, I hope to incorporate more features like a gallery, student attendance system, cell and chapel registration, etc. There is still work to be done in designing and prototyping the overall experience a typical student will need at Benson Idahosa University, but I believe this is a starting point for great things to come.
Let’s Connect
Feel free to reach out to me on Linkedin, Twitter, Instagram or by email at victordavidwhyte@gmail.com.
