My Framer Site

PhD Hub Website Design

Project Overview

PhD students struggled to find resources while admins faced the strain; I designed NYU Tandon's PhD Hub website to solve both.

My Role: UX Designer, Web Developer (ad-hoc basis)

Team: 2 UX Designers, 2 Program Directors, NYU Engineering Team

Timeline: Aug 2022 - Aug 2024

Tools: Figma, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Google Analytics

The Problem

A million tabs, zero clarity: NYU PhD students struggled to find key resources.

Impact

And solving this mattered because, within the first 6 months:

Admins spent 40% less time answering questions.
Workshop participants increased by 2x.
Site traffic went up by 55% as students found information 50% faster.
Student satisfaction rate for collaborations and events - 40% higher.

Action

What led to the solution?

User interviews
Student Focus Groups
"Lunch and Learn" workshops product owners
Prototyping and usability testing - iterative
Web Development

CONTEXT

Lost and looking: PhD students couldn't find resources; admins felt the strain.

It started with one question: Why aren't PhD students signing up for events or workshops? I investigated through interviews with students, department heads, and admins.

Below are some of the key findings:

Information was scattered everywhere!

PhD students struggle to find relevant academic resources, events, and support services in one location.

PhD students struggle to find academic resources, events, and support in one place.

Students were unaware

A lot of times, students weren't even aware of events happening or services available to them.

Reaching out to admins for everything

Overwhelmed students sought admin help, but it wasn’t always feasible.

Frustration + disengagement

Finding information was frustrating which led to students wanting to disengage from available resources.

THE CHALLENGE

How might we help PhD students quickly find what they need in one centralized location?

RESEARCH

Led two student focus groups to uncover specific needs and actionable insights.

Researched and mapped search solutions through competitor analysis, journey mapping, and wireframing to design two feasible options.

Student Focus Groups Overview

Duration: 1 hour each
Participants: 4 PhD students from diverse programs (anonymized)

Lunch & Learn: Defined website needs with admin departments over sandwiches.

Goal: Gather insights on student needs, available resources, and department priorities.

Result: Student and admin feedback shaped the website's requirements.

INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE

Making Sense of the Mess: Structured the chaotic site map for clarity.

Card sorting to the rescue!

Participants: Students, staff, admin, faculty, finance team
Duration: 40 minutes per iteration

After refining iterations (and plenty of coffee), the final site map emerged as shown below.

PROTOTYPING

To simplify the experience, I introduced two key search enhancements.

Wireframed and prototyped the website using NYU's UI Kit in Figma.

To simplify the experience, I introduced two key search enhancements.

USABILITY TESTING

Testing if users find what they need: Conducting usability tests on the Figma prototype.

Wireframed and prototyped the website using NYU's UI Kit in Figma.

Testing if users find what they need: Conducting usability tests on the Figma prototype.

Conducted three rounds of testing over 2 hours with PhD students, staff, and administrators.

Click to see user testing structure and some resulted design changes

FINAL DESIGN

After iterative tweaks and testing—ta-da! The final website with key features highlighted.

Wireframed and prototyped the website using NYU's UI Kit in Figma.

After iterative tweaks and testing—ta-da! The final website with key features highlighted.

Conducted three rounds of testing over 2 hours with PhD students, staff, and administrators.

Offer early summer orientation for life in New York: advice on housing and banking on the website.
Provide a checklist for paperwork, deadlines, and housing, with contact info for international student support.
A list of all fellowship opportunities available and applicable for students with different needs.
Details of past and upcoming social events exclusively for PhD Students at NYU Tandon.
Academic, Professional Development, Research, and Student Engagement Resources.
An FAQ page for academic and administrative queries.

Offer early summer orientation for life in New York: advice on housing and banking on the website.

Provide a checklist for paperwork, deadlines, and housing, with contact info for international student support.

A list of all fellowship opportunities available and applicable for students with different needs.

Details of past and upcoming social events exclusively for PhD Students at NYU Tandon.

Academic, Professional Development, Research, and Student Engagement Resources.

An FAQ page for academic and administrative queries.

Reflections

This experience taught me the importance of feature prioritization, ensuring that the most impactful changes were addressed first.
I also learned that aligning all stakeholders early through structured meetings helped streamline decisions and reduce unnecessary back-and-forth.
Most importantly, I realized the power of using data to support design choices turning subjective opinions into objective, actionable insights.

What would I do differently?

Planning for future scalability.
Consistent process documentation.
Further accessibility considerations.

Ready to build something amazing

sirichandanapothuri@gmail.com

Siri Chandana Pothuri

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