The client
Australia's Griffith University ranks in the top 2 percent of universities globally and has over 4,000 staff and 50,000 students on six campuses in South East Queensland.
Griffith's network of more than 200,000 graduates across 130 nationalities extends around the world.
Challenge
The University had a clear vision for a new student portal – a platform that allowed Griffith University to communicate directly to different cohorts of students simultaneously.
They had the following requirements.
- Personalized content for students – remembering who they were and what they were studying.
- Fast and accessible – from various devices, including computers, laptops, tablets and phones.
- Task focused – enabling students to enrol, view their timetable or academic records, and access other Griffith University systems, including an employment and career hub.
- Technically integrated – pulling information from a wide range of disparate systems and presenting it via an easy-to-use interface.
Solution
Squiz Matrix CMS was used to integrate a number of systems and databases so students had all the information they needed in one place. Its simple interface made it easy to create a clean, modern site appealing to students.
Content strategy informed the way the portal’s wireframes would be laid out and Squiz ensured that each wireframe could function within the portal and deliver a great user experience.
As Griffith wished to utilise their existing infrastructure for the project to provide personalized content, a single code path to handle the personalization logic had to be written. Although complicated, the result was hugely successful.
- The myGriffith portal integrates with 22 different systems and can be easily viewed on multiple devices.
- Students can track their degree progress and credit points.
- One week after launch, 52.6% of polled students rated the new portal Excellent despite having to adjust to a new student experience mid semester.
- myGriffith is used for up to 500,000 sessions per month making it one of Griffith's most highly visited sites.
Results
- The myGriffith portal integrates with 22 different systems and can be easily viewed on multiple devices.
- One week after launch, 52.6% of polled students rated the new portal Excellent despite having to adjust to a new student experience mid semester.
- myGriffith is used for up to 500,000 sessions per month making it one of Griffith's most highly visited sites.
Approach
Squiz worked collaboratively with Peak Usability, as well as the myGriffith portal team, to apply a robust, user-centred design approach throughout the project.
Users had input through eight focus groups, a university-wide survey and stakeholder interviews, ensuring the final product met all needs and requirements.