Web
Mobile
Updating The Advising Experience
Updating The Advising Experience
The academic advising experience at the Missouri University of Science and Technology was fragmented across multiple systems, making it difficult for students to understand what actions to take and when.
This project focused on restructuring advising as a continuous, guided experience, helping students confidently navigate planning, registration, and graduation without relying on manual support.
The academic advising experience at the Missouri University of Science and Technology was fragmented across multiple systems, making it difficult for students to understand what actions to take and when.
This project focused on restructuring advising as a continuous, guided experience, helping students confidently navigate planning, registration, and graduation without relying on manual support.
The Problem
The Problem
Students were expected to manage complex academic requirements across disconnected tools with little guidance.
This led to:
Confusion around responsibilities, next steps, and ownership
The core failure wasn’t usability; it was a lack of clarity and continuity across the system.
Students were expected to manage complex academic requirements across disconnected tools with little guidance.
This led to:
Confusion around responsibilities, next steps, and ownership
The core failure wasn’t usability; it was a lack of clarity and continuity across the system.
My Role
Leadership and Ownership
I led the UX design for this project, owning the experience from discovery through implementation. As one of three designers at the university, I was responsible for ensuring the solution was clearly defined, executed, and delivered.
Additionally, I developed the site using TerminalFour, the CMS platform used by the university.
Cross-Functional Collaboration
I collaborated closely with internal stakeholders, including faculty, department staff, and advisors, to understand the advising process and align on a solution that balanced student needs with institutional requirements.
We were unable to conduct direct research with students because it took place during finals week, and we also chose not to involve them in the period leading up to it so they could focus. By the time the semester ended, the opportunity to gather student feedback had passed. Future iterations of the site will involve student feedback.
Pages from the site in mobile view.
Understanding the Problem
Understanding the Problem
Students Struggled to Find Advising Information
Advising content was scattered across multiple websites and systems, making it difficult for students to know where to go. The previous advising.mst.edu site served only a select group of students but did not make that clear, which often led students to visit the wrong offices for their advising needs.
Information Wasn’t Organized in a Way That Students Understood
Content was structured around internal organization (like colleges), but students more often think in terms of their specific department or program.
This Led to Confusion and Inefficiency
As a result, students spent extra time searching for information or navigating to the wrong places before finding what they needed.
Students Struggled to Find Advising Information
Advising content was scattered across multiple websites and systems, making it difficult for students to know where to go. The previous advising.mst.edu site served only a select group of students but did not make that clear, which often led students to visit the wrong offices for their advising needs.
Information Wasn’t Organized in a Way That Students Understood
Content was structured around internal organization (like colleges), but students more often think in terms of their specific department or program.
This Led to Confusion and Inefficiency
As a result, students spent extra time searching for information or navigating to the wrong places before finding what they needed.
Defining the Opportunity
Defining the Opportunity
Improving advising wasn’t about adding more content; it required restructuring the experience to:
Centralize critical actions and information
Guide students through key journeys (planning, registration, graduation)
Make responsibilities and deadlines explicit
This reframed the problem from:
“Improve advising usability”
To:
“Help students take the right action at the right time without needing external support.”
Improving advising wasn’t about adding more content; it required restructuring the experience to:
Centralize critical actions and information
Guide students through key journeys (planning, registration, graduation)
Make responsibilities and deadlines explicit
This reframed the problem from:
“Improve advising usability”
To:
“Help students take the right action at the right time without needing external support.”
Competitive analysis done of different universities.
Key Decisions
Key Decisions
1. Consolidating Advising into a Single Experience
I brought advising resources into one centralized website, reducing the need for students to navigate across multiple systems. This made it easier to find information without unnecessary searching.
2. Standardizing Structure Across Departments
I introduced a consistent structure for advising content to reduce variation between departments while still allowing flexibility where needed.
1. Consolidating Advising into a Single Experience
I brought advising resources into one centralized website, reducing the need for students to navigate across multiple systems. This made it easier to find information without unnecessary searching.
2. Standardizing Structure Across Departments
I introduced a consistent structure for advising content to reduce variation between departments while still allowing flexibility where needed.
Low fidelity mockups of potential solutions.
Navigating Stakeholder Constraints
Navigating Stakeholder Constraints
After developing early mockups and conducting a competitive analysis, progress stalled due to a lack of critical advising information needed to move forward with the design. At that point, I didn’t have enough detail to ensure the experience would meet the needs of each department’s students.
Attempts to gather this information proved challenging. Many faculty members were hesitant to share details and expressed concerns about the new site, which slowed progress and left gaps in the content needed to move forward.
Pivoting the Approach
To unblock the project, I consulted with the VC of Student Success, who provided some essential advising information relevant to all students.
Leveraging my experience in stakeholder management, I implemented a mockup-first feedback loop: I created a preliminary structure and shared it with faculty, encouraging them to correct inaccuracies rather than relying on proactive information gathering. This approach successfully moved the project forward while ensuring the design remained student-centered.
After developing early mockups and conducting a competitive analysis, progress stalled due to a lack of critical advising information needed to move forward with the design. At that point, I didn’t have enough detail to ensure the experience would meet the needs of each department’s students.
Attempts to gather this information proved challenging. Many faculty members were hesitant to share details and expressed concerns about the new site, which slowed progress and left gaps in the content needed to move forward.
Pivoting the Approach
To unblock the project, I consulted with the VC of Student Success, who provided some essential advising information relevant to all students.
Leveraging my experience in stakeholder management, I implemented a mockup-first feedback loop: I created a preliminary structure and shared it with faculty, encouraging them to correct inaccuracies rather than relying on proactive information gathering. This approach successfully moved the project forward while ensuring the design remained student-centered.
Heuristic evaluations of the three proposed solutions.
Defining the Site Structure
Defining the Site Structure
Once I had the information needed to ensure the site met all user needs, the next step was determining how to categorize the advising resources. Three options emerged:
Once I had the information needed to ensure the site met all user needs, the next step was determining how to categorize the advising resources. Three options emerged:
1
By College
A broad overview of each of the three colleges.
1
By College
A broad overview of each of the three colleges.
2
By College with Department Links
General advising info at the college level with links to each department’s advising page.
2
By College with Department Links
General advising info at the college level with links to each department’s advising page.
3
By Department
Listing out all of the departments, ensuring students didn’t have to know their college affiliation to find their advising resources.
3
By Department
Listing out all of the departments, ensuring students didn’t have to know their college affiliation to find their advising resources.
Choosing the Best Student Experience
Choosing the Best Student Experience
Student-Centered Navigation Strategy
We chose to organize the site by department because it offered the most intuitive and streamlined experience for students, minimizing the number of clicks needed to find advising information. From previous projects and conversations with students, faculty, and staff, we knew that many students aren’t aware of which college their department belongs to. Categorizing by department helped eliminate this common point of confusion and reduced friction in the navigation process.
Department-First Structure
This structure also allowed us to create a dedicated advising page for each department, hosted on their respective sites but linked directly from the main advising hub. While each page was categorized under its college, the direct department-first approach ensured students could easily locate and access the information they needed.
Each department’s advising page included:
Advisor contact information
Advising processes
Forms and important links
This approach provided a balance between centralized organization and departmental autonomy, giving departments control over their content while ensuring a consistent and user-friendly experience for students.
Student-Centered Navigation Strategy
We chose to organize the site by department because it offered the most intuitive and streamlined experience for students, minimizing the number of clicks needed to find advising information. From previous projects and conversations with students, faculty, and staff, we knew that many students aren’t aware of which college their department belongs to. Categorizing by department helped eliminate this common point of confusion and reduced friction in the navigation process.
Department-First Structure
This structure also allowed us to create a dedicated advising page for each department, hosted on their respective sites but linked directly from the main advising hub. While each page was categorized under its college, the direct department-first approach ensured students could easily locate and access the information they needed.
Each department’s advising page included:
Advisor contact information
Advising processes
Forms and important links
This approach provided a balance between centralized organization and departmental autonomy, giving departments control over their content while ensuring a consistent and user-friendly experience for students.
Outcome
Outcome
Reduced missed actions and deadlines across advising workflows
Increased engagement with advising resources and tools
Decreased time spent navigating fragmented systems
Reduced missed actions and deadlines across advising workflows
Increased engagement with advising resources and tools
Decreased time spent navigating fragmented systems
Reflection
Reflection
The biggest shift was moving from a system-centered structure to a student-centered journey.
Instead of expecting students to figure out the system, the experience now guides them through it.
If I continued this work, I would explore:
Personalization based on student progress
Predictive guidance for upcoming requirements
Better support for edge cases and non-traditional paths
The biggest shift was moving from a system-centered structure to a student-centered journey.
Instead of expecting students to figure out the system, the experience now guides them through it.
If I continued this work, I would explore:
Personalization based on student progress
Predictive guidance for upcoming requirements
Better support for edge cases and non-traditional paths