A user-centred redesign of the BFH Digital Study Planner

Introduction:

Similar to other universities, the Bern University of Applied Sciences (BFH), has a a designated sets of requirements for their study programmes. These requirements need to be fulfilled by students in order to obtain their degree. However many BFH students struggle to understand the full extent of these rules and requirements. To address this issue, the BFH has developed the Digital Study Planner (DSP): a tool designed to help students plan their studies and ensure that all rules and requirements are met. However, the current version of the DSP faces some issues, and does not always behave the way it is expected to. This can sometimes result in problems and confusion. A redesign is needed to address these issues and fix existing problems.

Goals:

The goal of this project was the development of a fully functional prototype that improves upon the existing user interface, adheres to the BFH brand design, and addresses user needs and issues.

Method:

In order to develop a new design, the current DSP was analysed in great detail to create a requirements list that centres on design requirements, feature requirements, and future feature requirements. The identified requirements were then ranked based on identified user information, obtained via a survey, which identified user experiences and needs.
To ensure that the new design follows the BFH brand design guidelines and correctly displays all study requirements, the BFH Markenmanual and the different curricula of the BFH Business Department were analysed. Using both, this information and the previous mentioned requriements list, a new design was developed using FIGMA.

Results:

The final result of the project is a fully functional Figma prototype that resolves previous issues and improves upon the user interface and user experience of the the current DSP, and addresses user requirements. The new design should provide students with an easy to use tool, that provides important study information and allows for easy and successful study planning.

Outlook:

The new design will be presented to the BFH and hopefully be adapted in the future. As of now, the DSP is only available at the BFH Business Department. However the new design closely resembles other BFH software applications and may even be implemented across other departments in the future.