Business Technology Group at USC
USC BTG is a student-led organization within the University of Southern California's Marshall School of Business. Focused on bridging the gap between business and technology through innovation consulting using the design thinking framework, BTG collaborates with a myriad of startup and Fortune 500 companies.
DURATION
Dec 2023 - Jan 2024 (1 month)
ROLE
UI/UX Designer
TEAM
2 Designers + 1 Product Manager
Overview
The Problem
The USC BTG website faces challenges with an outdated, non-responsive design that does not align with the organization's mission for innovation and technology. The current interface hinders user engagement and accessibility across devices. To address this, a comprehensive redesign is necessary, focusing on modern UI/UX principles to create a visually appealing, intuitive, and responsive platform that reflects BTG's forward-thinking ethos.
The Solution
By emphasizing modern UI/UX principles, we've revitalized the platform to encapsulate BTG's progressive ethos. This redesigned platform now boasts a visually captivating, user-friendly interface. The aim of this project was to complete the new website ahead of the Spring 2024 semester's recruitment cycle, a goal which we successfully achieved.
The Audience
Clients utilize the BTG website as a resource to understand BTG's work better. They review past projects, learn about the services they provide, and gain insight into their consulting approach. This information aids them in deciding to collaborate with us on future projects.
The majority of the BTG website audience caters to students. They peruse through information such as the recruitment timeline and the organization's activities with the objective of applying as a consultant or a BTG cloud member.
User Research
To help guide our wireframe ideations, I conducted 6 out of 18 interviews with stakeholders, primarily BTG’s internal leadership, club members, and undergraduate USC students. These interviews allowed us to gain insight to BTG’s Website’s strengths and weaknesses.
Strengths
Weaknesses
• Site navigation is clear and easy to understand
• BTG's website boasts a clear information architecture, with well-defined and organized pages
• Comprehensive FAQ sections
• Information and images regarding socials, members, and previous clients are outdated and lack relevance.
• The aesthetic and design of the site's navigation and footer elements do not reflect current web design trends, creating an outdated appearance
• No page for BTG’s new general members program “BTG Cloud”
Design Process
Site Architecture
After conducting our interviews, I identified opportunities to enhance the existing BTG website's information architecture. I successfully implemented several improvements, including adding a FAQ section to the 'About' page, relocating the internal team page under the 'About' section for better accessibility, and introducing a dedicated 'BTG Cloud' page to streamline information. These changes significantly improved user navigation and engagement on the site.
Low-Fi Wireframes
We designed the homepage, about, which included 3 sub-pages for consulting, cloud, and internal, clients, and events. I personally focused on the structure and layout of the internal team, events, and home pages.
High-Fi Wireframes
Upon presenting our initial low-fidelity wireframes to BTG's leadership, we received approval to proceed with creating high-fidelity wireframes and prototypes. This phase involved updating our web design with recent images and information, as well as developing the BTG Cloud and Innovation Consulting pages.
Prototype
After designing the high-fidelity wireframes, we prototyped them to fully demonstrate the functionality and desired layout and design of the final website.
Remastering Site Architecture
During a subsequent conversation with BTG leadership about transitioning our prototype to a live website using Webflow, we encountered an obstacle. The Figma to Webflow plugin was not functional, which led us to change our strategy and build the website from scratch on SquareSpace.
This shift necessitated a reevaluation and redesign of our site's information architecture. Consequently, we decided to give the internal team their own dedicated page, complete with unique navigation in the header. Additionally, we consolidated the Innovation Consulting and Cloud applications into a single 'Apply' page, rather than having them as separate pages.
USC BTG Website
Check out the final website with updated information architecture, information sections, and images, that led to a record-breaking number of applicants, up 40% from the previous semester:
