My Northeastern Portal

Making the ideal the reality

my.northeastern.edu

We removed mountains of technical debt to make a user portal more user friendly.

  • In-Depth Interviews

    Climb inside the world of the user with structured interviews that bring their unique voices into the design process.

  • Personas

    Bringing your target users to life with personas that are rooted in research and crafted with strategic data and insights creates a clear voice to model.

  • Journey Maps

    The path of an experience is seldom a straight one, especially when looking to improve your user experience. Mapping that journey is a powerful way to begin.

  • Competitive Analysis

    See where you shine, where you don’t, and how to leverage that intel to fill the most important gaps in your experience.

  • Taxonomy Research

    Avoid internal bias with quantitative research methods that let users create the most intuitive navigation groupings for their needs.

  • Accessibility Audits

    We make accessibility easy — from the early stages of design through final development, we ensure the latest compliance standards are always top of mind.

  • Experience Strategy

    We evaluate internal perceptions, user goals and best practices to find that “special sauce” that drives an actionable roadmap for your future experience.

  • Sketches

    When it comes to bringing ideas to life, the pencil is mightier than the keyboard. And much faster.

  • Prototypes

    If a picture is a thousand words, a high-fidelity prototype is the entire story. Bringing the user experience to life with a fully-interactive artifact is a low-cost, high-value way to iterate without the investment of code.

  • Responsive Design

    We design for the future on today’s devices. Every element is considered for every size display to create an ideal experience for all users.

  • Visual Design

    Through imagery, messaging, color and typography, we deliberate over pixels, consistency, readability, contrast, accessibility and creativity.

  • User Testing

    To get decisive, actionable findings, we let users explore without artificial restrictions. We design our prototypes to accommodate this need, as a final product would.

  • Functional Specifications

    Converting your designs into well-documented specifications with functionality, flows, layout, and styles ensures that no developer has to guess what comes next.

The Challenge

The MyNortheastern portal was legendary, for all the wrong reasons. Ask any Husky and they’ll have vivid memories of—and lasting scars from—a vital system they struggled to make sense of and wrestled with every semester. The property had grown over many digital generations, offering a rich menu of content and services, but failing to serve up any of them well.

And the wide range of users didn’t make things any easier. Undergrad, graduates, PhD candidates, domestic and international students, on campus and online learners, parents, alumni, faculty, and staff. We had to think big. We had to think fresh. We needed a North Star—and a solid plan to get us there.

A North Star prototype was created to help articulate the vision, gather feedback and serve as a touchstone during roadmapping
A North Star prototype was created to help articulate the vision, gather feedback and serve as a touchstone during roadmapping

Our Approach

With so many user types, we had to start by casting a wide net. We ran interviews across audiences to understand the breadth and depth of the process—and potential opportunities. When the dust settled, we identified the themes that united them all and the unique challenges they faced.

Users were co-creators in the process, proving feedback on their needs and pressure testing the new vision as it evolved
Users were co-creators in the process, proving feedback on their needs and pressure testing the new vision as it evolved

Next, we created a North Star-vision prototype that allowed users to establish a network and take full advantage of it throughout their journey. We focused on getting users through the crucial transitions they encounter along the way, from freshman orientation to graduation, co-ops to changing majors. We made it personalized, customized, idealized and unifying—a shared vision everyone could rally around.

Then we distilled the North Star concept into an MVP—establishing a framework for the things available now while introducing big, new ideas we wanted to see in the future. With the MVP implemented, users glide seamlessly from their dashboard to courses to advisors and apps, on any device. And every few months or so, something next-level arrived.

Areas of the North Star that were deemed MVP worthy were designed in detail and tested
Areas of the North Star that were deemed MVP worthy were designed in detail and tested

The Results

For many clients it’s all too easy to focus solely on MVP. The key to making this project a reality was creating the confidence that the first iteration was a logical step towards the next revolution. By focusing on both the users of today and of the future, we were able to deliver a framework, a vision, and a roadmap to get there.

[The portal] was clogged with info before. Now it’s 1-2 clicks to get what I need.

—Staff Member

Home is more functional. Favorites are cool!

—Graduate Professional Student

Much better, cleaner than the old portal. I was clicking for days in the old one.

—Staff Member