Portflow UX improvements

Project description

“Portflow is the portfolio tool used at many colleges and universities (including Fontys) to give students insight into work made and to collect feedback from peers, teachers, and experts from the field. Although the tool works functionally, we see many opportunities to improve the tool's user experience.”

It is important to understand the current user interactions, especially where they go wrong. The goal is to identify the real reasons why Portflow is not being used universally. There should be a an advise on what needs to be changed in the UX to enhance the usage of Portflow.

Context

Portflow is utilized by teachers and students in an educational setting. Numerous colleges and universities use Portflow as a portfolio tool to capture and showcase student development.

Results

In the beginning, several discussions were held with teachers and students. During this period, Drieam organized a user day, where other universities were also present. During these discussions, various issues were raised. Based on these conversations, I created two prototype variants. These prototypes were tested, and with the feedback received, a new design was developed. The stakeholders approved this design, and a working prototype was created and tested again. This process ensured multiple rounds of feedback, continuously incorporating user input.

To understand why Portflow is not universally used, I drew a process that provides insight into the current workflow and how it can be improved by applying UX features to Portflow. This will result in a better implementation of Portflow. Together, this gives a comprehensive view of the enhancements Drieam can implement in Portflow. The final result is an advisory report that thoroughly describes all these development steps and what to improve.

About the project group

In previous semesters, I have always worked on projects in Business & ICT. I am very interested in improving processes and utilizing specific systems, but I noticed that users often have too little input in the development or design of a new/existing system. Therefore, I decided to dedicate a semester to learning about UX and how it can be applied to a system or website. After completing my internship, I realized that the combination of business and UX is essential in this world. For this semester, I challenged myself to merge these two fields. I have carried out the project entirely on my own, dedicating approximately 15 weeks, working four days a week. The deliverables were developed in sprints, resulting in a flexible product.