{"id":24,"date":"2025-10-06T19:15:06","date_gmt":"2025-10-06T19:15:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.create.ou.edu\/salinas\/?p=24"},"modified":"2025-12-10T20:42:04","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T20:42:04","slug":"designing-viscomm-website-define","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sova.ourcloud.ou.edu\/mariannsalinas\/2025\/10\/06\/designing-viscomm-website-define\/","title":{"rendered":"Designing Viscomm Website: Define"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What is our objective?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Our original objective is to create a website that is for the program of Visual Communications for the University of Oklahoma, so to achieve this we had spoken to the target audiences of those who would be looking at the website and how each would see the online experience. In the defining process of the project after we had conducted our interviews, we had to now analyze the information that we had collected and what answers can be gained from it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do we do now?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

We had pursued into making a persona and user journey map which includes prospective students, parents of those who are interested in this program, and faculty who wish to have more students in their program. This process will show how each of these personas will show what is going on their lives and what effects their mindset, show any additional data that is important to us and other things that will influence how they approach the website. When it comes to the user journey map, it will show their experience exploring the website and how each step is taken due to their personal lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Prospective Student<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Our first persona was a prospective student. What we gained out of this persona and user journey map was that the student had some clarity issues. They included:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  • The website for the Viscomm check-sheet is confusing.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • The BFA portfolio information is vague.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • The website information is generic.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • There’s a lack of student work for her to look through.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Events held at the building at often missed since she doesn’t always look at the posters.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Career opportunities are not brought to her attention. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    All of these were insights we took in from the previous interviews through working with empathy maps and affinity maps to find common issues. The user journey map had shown us how due to these issues, the journey through the website had reflected these experiences. The student had looked for information but couldn’t find any. When she had gone further for more information from OU, she had hit the same roadblock, unsure how to move on from there and feeling lost and confused when it came to entering the program. This provides a design opportunity of bringing more clear information, providing student work to show off the program, and offering announcements for events and careers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    <\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    Parent<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    Our second persona was a parent for a student wanting to enter the program. What we gained out of this persona and user journey map was that the parent had accessibilty and confidence issues. They included that:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      \n
    • The website is difficult to read with thin and tiny font sizing.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • The website would need another language option as she has a different first language.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • She feels uncertain about her child going through the major due to lack of career options being listed in the website.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • She feels unsure due to the lack of information and what is provided is vague. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

      This is further emphasized in her user journey map. She would go and see what the opportunities are for her child, wanting them to be successful. She will see if there is anything listed by the website but see there is nothing. She’ll see who she can contact just to be told that they also are not sure and it will make her doubt if she should let her child continue with the major. This can provide design opportunities which would bring readability and accessibility to those who have worse eyesight, different language opportunities for those who read better in other languages, and show career opportunities to bring confidence to both the students and parents to show off the program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      \n
      \"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
      \"\"<\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

      Faculty<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

      Our third persona was a faculty member who had been involved in the program, wanting to show it off for future prospective students. What we gained out of this persona and user journey map was that the faculty member had design and confidence issues. They included that:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        \n
      • The website was generic and buried under other art programs and websites.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
      • There was a huge lack of personality, it doesn’t show what the program is. <\/li>\n\n\n\n
      • There is little to no student work that is shown and that even social media doesn’t showcase it well, pushing it more over there.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
      • There is missing information for how the program runs and that it connects to real-world jobs.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
      • There is inconsistent or underwhelming visual storytelling compared to competitor schools.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

        In the user journey map this is further reflected through the disappointment in the website and debating if it is even worth recommending to other students if the website to show off the program is underwhelming. She started off neutral and ended frustrated as it barely showed what the program could be. this can bring a design opportunity of being more clear with our information about the program, showing off the programs personality through student work and social media posts as well as showing real-world jobs that can be obtained through the major.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        What were some challenges we had?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

        When working on this part, we had some challenges. We had plenty of perspectives and then had to organize accordingly. Some had overlapped but some had truly conflicting perspectives. We had to cross-examine our persona maps, using color coordination, process of elimination and note taking through our analysis. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

        \"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

        We had focused on what would be most useful to pursue in our website design due to this. We had to break down each perspective and how a healthy mix of their views would ultimately come to. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

        In the end,<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

        I had found how to see different perspectives, how to design and organize information as well as see issues that I hadn’t thought of before due to the various interviews we had analyzed and broken down to make these personas and user journey maps. I had found myself thinking beyond a design and thought more on the background and upbringing of each person and how their perspective matters in that sense.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

        What is our objective? Our original objective is to create a website that is for the program of Visual Communications for the University of Oklahoma, so to achieve this we had spoken to the target audiences of those who would be looking at the website and how each would see the online experience. In the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[9],"class_list":["post-24","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","tag-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sova.ourcloud.ou.edu\/mariannsalinas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sova.ourcloud.ou.edu\/mariannsalinas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sova.ourcloud.ou.edu\/mariannsalinas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sova.ourcloud.ou.edu\/mariannsalinas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sova.ourcloud.ou.edu\/mariannsalinas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sova.ourcloud.ou.edu\/mariannsalinas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":171,"href":"https:\/\/sova.ourcloud.ou.edu\/mariannsalinas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24\/revisions\/171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sova.ourcloud.ou.edu\/mariannsalinas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sova.ourcloud.ou.edu\/mariannsalinas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sova.ourcloud.ou.edu\/mariannsalinas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}