Challenge & Research Goals
As part of its digital strategy, UC Chile is modernizing its systems to raise standards for technology, security and digital experience. Online enrollment was high on that list. The existing system had limited usability, a dated visual design and an interface that no longer met current UX standards.
The university commissioned a new version with a redesigned interface and a more streamlined process. The project was led by the Office of the Vice President for Academic Affairs and the Office of the Vice President for Digital Intelligence.
The Office of Digital Experience, part of the Office of the Vice President for Communications, designed the user interface, and then needed to answer a question: does the new design actually solve the old problems?
We needed user feedback at two moments: before development, to fix usability problems at the prototype stage, and after release, to confirm the live system delivered a good experience.
Solution
Phase 1: Moderated Prototype Testing before development
Before any code was written, the team built an interactive prototype of the new eight-step enrollment process and ran a qualitative usability test with eight participants in UXtweak.
The goal was to find the most frequent and most critical issues. Each finding was categorized by severity and by how often it occurred, so the team knew exactly what to fix first.
The study pointed to a problem beyond the interface: some of the biggest issues were about content, not design. Applicants, many of them 16 or 17 years old, struggled with concepts and terms from the university world that were essential to completing the process.
The insights fed directly into the final design, and the development team then built the real system.
Phase 2: Survey during the live enrollment
When the new system went live, the team needed to measure the experience at scale, quickly, while the three-day enrollment was in progress. Every new student received an email invitation to a UXtweak survey right after finishing enrollment.
The survey combined two standardized scales: the System Usability Scale (SUS) to measure usability, and NASA-TLX to measure the effort required, along with open-ended questions about what was missing and which concepts were unclear.
It was wonderful because we could very quickly get important feedback and understand what was working and what could be improved.
Outcome
User tested the new design
The new system was evaluated very well on experience, usability and effort. It earned an excellent score on the SUS scale, and a low effort score on NASA-TLX.
The open feedback was just as encouraging. When asked what was missing from the system, or what participants would add to make it easier to use, 65 of the 250 respondents said they would not change anything at all.
Honestly, the enrollment process is efficient and fulfills all its functions, so I wouldn't change anything about it.
It's long, but it's not complicated if you have all the information on hand. Much better than going in person.
I genuinely feel that it is very easy to use, and adding more steps or instructions, rather than providing clarity, would only make the process more cumbersome.
Found what to improve next
The surveys also pointed to specific improvements. Respondents asked for clearer instructions at certain steps. Concepts around financial aid and guarantees remained confusing for young applicants, even after the business team had already improved the wording.
A baseline for every future change
The most lasting value is the baseline. With low effort scores on record, the team can now say with evidence how much room the process has. If the business wants to add steps, fields or information, the team can measure the same scales again and see exactly what the change costs users.
The effort is all right, but if you want a more complicated process, you have to measure that. It's a baseline for future processes.
Why UXtweak? 🐝
The team specifically highlighted tool’s flexibility across a prototype test and a large survey, real-time dashboards with handy data exports, and responsive support.
UXtweak was very useful for our team to prove that our design works well.
