UX Writing / UX design

Redesigned information architecture & site menu

Challenge

The University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy offers a number of graduate degrees and non-degree programs which fund a significant share of the school’s budget. Despite their importance, the degree programs were not listed in the website’s main menu. The website needed a redesigned information architecture that facilitated findability and discoverability of the school’s full suite of products.

Solution

Caleb and his UX teammate iterated in Figma until they found a new information architecture that supported business goals and displayed the school’s full suite of products. Caleb’s team also designed new product listing pages to facilitate a seamless experience as users navigate the new architecture.

results

  • Products are findable and discoverable from anywhere on the site
  • Improved UX design supports scanning and user navigation

skills required

  • Information architecture
  • UX writing
  • UX design

The former main menu

the website's former main menu shows no links to the product pages

Thanks to the Wayback Machine, you can see a screenshot of the main menu’s Academics section in 2020. None of the full-time graduate degree programs—the largest source of revenue for the school—are listed. To see the list of graduate degrees available at the school, users had to click “Degrees.” This was a missed opportunity, especially because the school offers several niche programs—and many prospective students become interested in enrolling in the school’s smaller programs after discovering the available options.

The new main menu

the new main menu includes all the degree programs

The redesigned information architecture lists the graduate degree programs in the main menu, making it easy to find and discover the organization’s products. Based on research of how people read online, Caleb’s team placed the list of degrees in the first column on the left to catch the eye of users scanning the menu.

Additionally, the new architecture separates degree programs and non-degree programs, highlighting the diversity of products available to prospective customers.

Feel free to visit the website to take a closer look.

See Caleb’s other projects