ECU HUB
Emily Carr HUB brings everything into one place, making it easier to connect, communicate, and navigate life at ECU for students, staff, and faculty.
About The Project
Date:
Sep 2023 - May 2024
Project Type:
Work Contract
Focus Field:
Business Analysis, UX/UI Design, Front-End Development
Tools:
Figma, M365, Craft, Team Dynamics
0.1 - CONTEXT
0.2 - USER RESEARCH
In summer 2023, I joined the IT Innovation Hub Team at Emily Carr University as a Service Analyst, hired by CIO Sandeep Sidhu to improve the digital experience. I worked with my teammate to identify key system touchpoints and contributed to projects like the ECU HUB initiative.
To determine the content for the platform, I analyzed five existing university apps and contacted their teams to understand the rationale behind their features and functionality. This analysis helped identify which features to include based on user research and insights. Some features proved highly beneficial for students, while others appeared unnecessary or underutilized.
To identify key touchpoints for improvement, the CIO tasked me with leading the user journey mapping process to gain a deeper understanding of the overall user experience
The journey map I developed with the team focused on students' digital experience, tracking their journey from the beginning to the end of the fall semester. It featured four rows: journey activities, touchpoints, key moments, pain points, and opportunities.
Participants were given two colors of sticky notes—green for pros and red for cons—to actively share their insights and experiences at each step of the journey
0.3 - INSIGHTS & PROBLEMS
From the journey mapping activity, we gathered a total of 382 sticky notes from both undergraduate and graduate participants, including 134 notes from international students and 247 from domestic students. Notably, 296 of these sticky notes were cons, while 89 were pros. This valuable feedback enabled us to clearly identify key issues and areas for improvement.
How might we create a centralized platform that allows students to easily connect to essential school systems like Moodle, Outlook, and MyEC, eliminating the common challenges they face in navigating and figuring out these platforms?
0.5 - COMPETITOR ANALYSIS
60%
Students struggle to navigate to the right services and want a more direct way to easily access support, without spending unnecessary time.
Student A Feedback - " Too many steps / websites to get help: counselling, academic, advising, co-op, and facilities. "
30%
Students experience confusion with these applications, often ending up in the wrong place / platform and missing crucial information.
Student C Feedback - " I had a hard time navigating MyEC and Moodle cause I thought they were the same application. "
237
Students prefer a centralized place that allows them to easily view their class schedules, email, assignments, grades, and access MyEC.
Student B Feedback- "Centralized location for all class info. First day, I struggled to navigate because the information was scattered "
0.4 - DESIGN CHALLENGE & OPPORTUNITY
0.6 - SOLUTION
By creating an app that centralizes everything students need, Emily Hub simplifies connecting, communicating, and navigating student life at ECU. It streamlines access to essential resources, making daily tasks more efficient and stress-free for students
Emily Hub requires users to sign in using their school email accounts. This authentication process ensures that only Emily Carr students, staff, and faculty can access the platform, providing a personalized and secure experience tailored to their academic and professional needs.
As a visitor, you can access general information across the platform without being a student or faculty member. However, access to courses and certain features will be restricted.
Login Page & School Verification
The Home and Alerts pages serve as the central hub, keeping students informed with updates on campus events, news, and announcements, ensuring they never miss important information.
Home & Alert Pages - Events, Alerts, & News
The resources page serves as your central hub, providing everything you need for your academic journey, including your class schedule, email, Moodle, and MyEC.
On the services side, we’ve included features designed to make accessing support easier and more convenient.
Resources Pages
For the app's branding, it was essential to respect ECU's brand identity and design system. Aligning with their guidelines ensured consistency and upheld the integrity of their established design standards.
The primary logo should be used in every application unless pre-approved by the Communications+ Marketing department. Only use the colour logo over black or white backgrounds and ensure it contrasts with the text colour.
The typeface used by Emily Carr University is F37 Jagger, a clean and simple sans-serif with distinctive quirky kicks and curves, designed for high accessibility. If F37 Jagger is unavailable, Aptos is the recommended alternative.
The palette of Emily Carr’s paintings inspired our brand colours. Our colour palette is divided into two categories; primary and secondary
Our primary colours are the most associated with Emily Carr University and should be the lead colour in application.
0.7 - VISUAL BRANDING AND IDENTITY
Logo
Typeface
Colour Palette
PINK
Hex #F20082
RGB 242, 0, 130
CMYK 0, 99, 10, 0
Pantone 225C
LIME
Hex #B5D100
RGB 181, 209, 0
CMYK 35, 01, 100, 0
Pantone 3570C
TURQUOISE
Hex #00B082
RGB 0, 176, 130
CMYK 79, 03, 66, 0
Pantone 339C
ORANGE
Hex #FF8500
RGB 255,133,0
CMYK 0,58,100,0
Pantone 151C
RED
Hex #D1210A
RGB 209,33,10
CMYK 12,98,100,3
Pantone 2347C
PURPLE
Hex #633370
RGB 99,51,112
CMYK 71,93,26,12
Pantone 2612C
F37 Jagger:
Aptos:
Primary Colours:
Secondary Colours:
Our secondary colours complement the primaries but can appear at a large scale in special applications.
Through the Emily Hub project, I explored new opportunities and engaged with students, graduates, designers, developers, and platform business leaders both within and beyond the school. This journey underscored the importance of effective communication in design. Creating user experiences is not just about crafting objects but about exchanging ideas and fostering collaboration. This project reinforced the value of communication and inspired me to remain open to continuous learning and growth
0.8 - REFLECTION
@myquyenong