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

    Through deep-dive interviews we bring users’ unique voices directly into the design process, surfacing the real behaviors and the motivations behind their actions.

  • Personas

    We bring your target users to life with personas rooted in research and built on real data, so every downstream decision has a clear, consistent voice to model against.

  • Journey Maps

    The path of an experience is seldom a straight one. We map it stage by stage, capturing what users do, think, and feel along the way, to surface pain points and opportunities hiding in plain sight.

  • Competitive Analysis

    We study your competitors and the best practices beyond your category to establish the baseline users expect, and to find the openings that let you differentiate.

  • Taxonomy

    Using a mix of open and closed card sorting, tree testing, and first-click studies, we build an information architecture people can navigate with confidence.

  • Accessibility

    We design with the highest accessibility standards in mind, hand off with clear direction for development, and validate the result through rigorous audits against WCAG and ADA standards. Compliance is proven, not assumed.

  • Experience Strategy

    We evaluate internal perceptions, user goals, and best practices to find what makes your experience worth having. Then we turn it into an action plan for what comes next.

  • Sketches

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

  • Prototyping

    If a picture is a thousand words, a high-fidelity prototype is the entire story. Testing with one gets us past hypothetical reactions and into real behavior, the kind of feedback we can actually trust. With AI-assisted prototypes, we go even deeper, real data, real interactions, insight we couldn’t get any other way.

  • Responsive Design

    We design every feature and flow for every screen it could appear on. The real test isn’t the device, it’s whether every decision still makes sense no matter how someone’s viewing it.

  • Visual Design

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

  • Usability Testing

    We ride-along as users navigate digital experiences while trying to achieve their goals. Sometimes we ask probing questions. Sometimes we just observe. Unearthing friction early costs a conversation. Catching it later could cost the business.

  • Design Handoff

    Final screens, specifications, documentation, and content assets—organized in Figma and AI-ready Markdown so both your developers and their coding tools can move seamlessly from design to build.

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