Redesign Albert

Evaine Sun
May 12, 2023
4 min read

Updated: Aug 30

A redesigned version of Albert, the NYU web-accessible registration system.

Introduction

Albert is New York University’s online student information system, where NYU students, faculty/advisor, administrator, alumni, etc. can register courses, download schedules, manage transcripts, make payments etc.
Among all the features Albert has, course registration is one of the most used, where all the students search and enroll courses every semester. However, students have found it difficult to access because some subpages hover around and are not optimized for different screen sizes, the search function and the filters are not intuitive, does not have convenient schedule function or course evaluation function, etc.
Therefore, I redesigned the website version of Albert by rearranging the layout and reorganizing the information, with an emphasis on the course registration process.

Empathize

Albert has problems with usability and accessibility. The potential solution of Albert may be in the form of website, with texts, icons, links, and user-generated contents, on devices such as laptops. The main action would be click, and the potential users would be from the NYU community. Similar platforms include the original Albert website, course registration system of other colleges, other NYU or ordering platforms.

I brainstormed that the largest pain point of Albert users is “bad search functions”, then “no evaluation in course search”, “bad hovering pages”, “not optimized for iPads”, “exiting not intuitive”, and lastly “bad exit/swap”, “does not load pages smoothly”, “bad calendar”, “crashed when registering”.

User Interview

Sample questions:

How often do you use Albert?
What do you mainly use Albert for?
What platform do you use Albert on? Laptops/tablets/mobile phones?
On a scale of 1-5 (5 very familiar), how are you familiar with all the features in Albert?
On a scale of 1-5 (5 very easy), is it easy for you to see the contents displayed in Albert?
On a scale of 1-5 (5 very satisfied), how will you rate your experience using Albert?
What is your best/worst experience using Albert?

Sample answers:

When I go to shopping cart, the subpage is not in the middle of the screen, and the page will be stuck when use iPad.
When I adjust tab size, information often run out of my screen.
I often use Albert to select courses, check classroom locations, pay tuitions, and check instructor evaluations.
When I want to go back to the main course search page, it closes the entire subpage and sends me to Albert mainpage.
The filters could be classified.
I have never used the calendar in Albert because it is so difficult to use. I always use Google Calendar.
After I’m done selecting a class from one school, and I want to switch to another school, I would like Albert automatically clear it out instead of me clicking on “return to browse by subject”.
I wish for each professor/course you want to select, Albert would allow a pop-up to see evaluations of the professor/course, so I do not have to switch between two different windows.

Summarized pain points:

Search function not very intelligent.
Shopping cart page hovering around.
Filters can be better.
If close shopping cart page, goes back to main page.
Banners doesn’t make sense.
Bad calendar.
Class search doesn’t display evaluations.

Define

Albert is for education. The market consists of 60,000 NYU students, over 5,000 NYU faculty, and numerous visiting users.
While the original Albert has been functional, I would like to make it more reliable, convenient, and even meaningful.

Positioning Statement

For NYU students who need to search and register for courses. The redesigned Albert is a website that can easily find courses they want to take, unlike the original Albert, our product has clearer filters, course information, and registering logic.

User Personas

Persona 1: Steven Stevenson is an organized, realistic, technical NYU CS junior who needs Albert to load pages smoothly, not crash when everyone try to register courses, and have better filters for searching courses because he wants to search and register courses easily.

Persona 2: Alex Alexson is an artistic, creative, curious NYU IMA freshman who needs Albert to have better subpages, exiting routes, display on iPad because she thinks Albert does not well consider design or accessibility.

Persona 3: Vlage Vlageson is a conventional, enterprising, social NYU Business senior who needs Albert to have better calendar, evaluation, edit/swap functions because he thinks Albert should integrate these functions well with course search and registration if they planned to have these functions at first.

Ideate

The mainflow of the sitemap goes Log in → Course Search → Course Search Blank → Course Search Result → Course Search Added → Course Search Selected → Course Search Confirm → Course Search Successful. Below is the user flow.

Prototype

wireframes of the Course Schedule, Course Search Blank, and Course Search Result pages

mockups of the Course Schedule, Course Search Blank, and Course Search Result pages

prototypes of the Course Schedule, Course Search Blank, and Course Search Result pages

Test

Original Albert:

Search and filters better
Search result page (a subpage) hovering around, exit route unintuitive
Calendars better

Redesign Albert (midterm version):

Information too dense, lines too dense
Some features unnecessary and unintuitive
Filters under search

Redeisgn Albert (final version):

More colors, all centered or shift-left
Scrolling bars thinner, borders thinner, rounded corners
Liked the schedule function, doesn’t have to make a spreadsheet myself

Before vs After

For the Couse Seach (homepage) page, I eliminated the banner on the homepage and replaced it with a course schedule. I also made the menu horizontal instead of vertical so that it can always hover on top of a page.

For the Course Search page, I made it a separate subpage instead of letting it hovering around. I improved the filters and placed them under the search bar.

For the Course Search Result page, I reorganized the course information, added icons (the icons are clickable and lead to calendar/map/evaluation), and placed each course vertically to make them more intuitive and more comparable. I also put the added courses right next to the searching results so that users can easily recall what courses they added already.