Austin Community College's Teaching, Learning and Excellence Division
Post-COVID course evaluation completion rate dropped from 94% to 34%
Google calendar integration
Student testimonials
Mobile-first design
Reduced task time by 22%
Reduced errors by 15%
Reduced clicks by 29%
3 Designers
Lead UX Design / Strategy
Jan – Apr 2022
Figma, Miro, Google Suite
Student participation in the course evaluations dropped sharply after moving them online due to Covid-19 regulations
When ACC shifted from in-class paper evaluations to digital-only formats in 2020 due to COVID-19, participation plummeted from 94% to 34%, despite 80% of participants rating the experience positively—suggesting barriers weren't about quality but engagement. Our team partnered with the Teaching, Learning, and Excellence Division to investigate these deeper participation barriers, aiming to increase completion rates to 49% within one semester by developing a comprehensive plan that would address the disconnect between student satisfaction and participation rates.
View Project Timeline →Our design outcomes directly supported ACC's enrollment goals
Our UX outcomes directly supported ACC's Strategic Enrollment Planning initiative, aligning with the college's equity and access mission while contributing to their goal of reaching 85,000 annual students by 2030. By enhancing communication about evaluations, creating effective notification systems, and designing a more user-friendly guide, we helped address the participation gap. This improved feedback mechanism strengthened students' sense of being heard and valued—directly advancing ACC's strategic focus on building the trust and belonging that encourages continued registration and sustainable enrollment growth.
We used surveys, interviews, and competitive analysis to uncover participation barriers
I led competitive analysis, targeted surveys, and in-depth interviews to uncover participation barriers. Here are the key findings.
"I have to kind of take initiative to put on my calendar, or I have to do it as soon as the notification comes through otherwise, I'm going to mean to do it and then forget to do it."
Participant 1
"I guess if I knew directly how it helps, in what way it's helped. Like if I know us doing it, how is it going to impact us?"
Participant 2
Here's what stood out when we evaluated three Texas-based community college course evaluation pages:
| Constraint | Impact | Adaptation |
|---|---|---|
| No baseline analytics about page views, clickthrough rate etc provided | Couldn't quantify page visits or drop-off rates | Relied on interviews & surveys |
| Screener criteria | Excluded students with under one semester's experience—new-student pain points may differ | Planned follow-up sessions post launch with first-semester students to validate and broaden findings |
| Limited sample size & diversity | Insights from 10 surveys and 7 interviews may not generalize across all student segments | Applied purposive screening for key segments; laid groundwork for a larger post-launch survey |
| Project timeline | Four-month scope restricted number of sessions and prototype iterations | Prioritized core research questions; used lean artifacts to maximize insights |
| No instructor & staff interviews | Lacked understanding of how and when instructors would promote the guide | Plan post-launch stakeholder interviews to optimize sharing workflows |
| No email-engagement metrics | Couldn't gauge open- or click-through rates on reminder messages | Requested mailing-list analytics for post-launch performance tuning |
Based on our research findings I developed three strategic user personas
"I'm always too busy with assignments and work to fill out long evaluation forms."
Bryan is a 22-year-old student balancing a part-time job with a full course load. He values efficiency and quick processes.
"Everything I do goes into my calendar, its runs my entire life."
Michelle is a 24-year-old student. She's a double major who is very busy with all her classes, family life social obligations. She values being able to put important dates on her calendar.
"If I can't do it on my phone then it probably takes too long."
Taylor is a 21-year-old first generation student who spends most of their time on the go and values mobile first interactions.
Right after defining our personas, we mapped the student's end-to-end experience—from the moment they learn an evaluation is due (via professor announcement or email) through selecting an access method (Blackboard vs. email link) to finally completing the form.
I identified three key opportunity areas from the research insights
INSIGHT
70% of students forget to complete evaluations.
OPPORTUNITY
Add reminder mechanisms and clarify timelines.
INSIGHT
Students felt their feedback didn't matter.
OPPORTUNITY
Show how evaluations lead to real changes.
INSIGHT
80% preferred navigating online information with their mobile phone
OPPORTUNITY
Build a seamless, mobile-first experience.
I created and facilitated an Effort–Impact Matrix workshop with my team to prioritize ideas based on user value and development feasibility, placing my calendar integration in the high-impact, low-effort quadrant.
I created three distinct design concepts for the calendar integration feature, exploring different interaction patterns before settling on a dropdown-based approach that my usability testing proved reduced cognitive load. While my teammates focused on other areas, I championed the integration of testimonials with calendar functions to address both engagement barriers simultaneously.
This idea leveraged visual segmentation of evaluation periods (addressing confusion noted in interviews) to improve awareness for students like Michele, who struggled with timeline clarity.
Here I explored whether directly showing completion rates could tap into social proof motivations identified for students like Bryan, potentially addressing the 'lack of perceived impact.
| Constraint | Impact | Design Adaptation |
|---|---|---|
| Privacy Requirements | We couldn't display peer progress or public submission data | Swapped in student and teacher testimonials and used student tone for messaging |
| Calendar Integration | ACC couldn't support every platform (Yahoo, Outlook, Apple etc) natively | Defaulted to Google Calendar, offered manual .ics export for others |
| Team Design Direction | Divided opinions on the emphasis of student testimonials vs. other features | I facilitated a structured critique session linking design preferences to research findings, establishing an evidence‑based approach for resolving design disagreements |
Deferring back to our matrix and incorporating stakeholder feedback, I proposed a hybrid, combining Campus Voice's simplicity with real-world impact examples from the Portal—solving both the "forgetting" and "why it matters" barriers with a mobile first approach meet Bryan, Michele and Taylors needs.
Usability testing showed improvements in efficiency, accuracy, and task completion
We employed Jakob Nielsen's Usability Metrics Framework to measure improvements in efficiency, accuracy, and completion. Based on our first round of testing, I implemented several targeted enhancements to my features:
Key Metrics from Usability Testing
15.2% improvement
Users completed evaluation guide tasks with significantly fewer errors, improving accuracy.
22.08% improvement
The streamlined interface reduced the average time needed to complete tasks from test one to test two.
23% improvement
Users relied less on the "contact us" section to complete task showing improvement in how information is being conveyed.
29.41% improvement
The redesigned navigation reduced the number of interactions needed to complete tasks.
| Metric | Round 1 | Round 2 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Avg. calendar-task errors | 2.4 errors/user | 0.6 errors/user | Reduced by 75% |
| Success rate | 4/5 passed | 5/5 passed | Increased by 20% |
| Research Insight | Design Response | Success Metric |
|---|---|---|
| 70% forget to complete evaluations | Calendar integration with customized reminders | Reduced no-shows (measured by 23% completion rate increase) |
| Students don't see impact of feedback | Faculty testimonials and "changes made" showcase | Improved perceived value (measured by positive sentiment in testing) |
| 80% prefer mobile completion | Mobile-first design with thumb-friendly UI patterns | Faster completion time (22% reduction in task time) |
| Confusion about evaluation timeline | Course-specific evaluation window indicator | Lower error rate (15.2% fewer errors in timeline-related tasks) |
We created two core mobile flows to improve evaluation participation
When designing the calendar feature, I made the critical decision to implement a dropdown selection rather than a date picker. My design choice was primarily driven by mobile space constraints, as my research showed 80% of students preferred mobile completion, this would help out students like Taylor. This compact solution not only saved valuable screen real estate but also simplified how students identified their evaluation windows by course length rather than arbitrary dates.
The screens below compare ACC’s original interface to the final design after two rounds of usability testing
This project fundamentally shaped how I approach a UX process when looking to affect motivation and engagement in EdTech and design writ large.
Working on the calendar feature transformed my approach from chasing aesthetic perfection to systematically reducing decision complexity for users, particularly after seeing how students struggled with identifying their evaluation windows rather than with the interface itself. This shift has made me a more strategic designer who prioritizes cognitive simplicity in all my work. The calendar integration also revealed how system boundaries (like connecting evaluation platforms with personal calendars) are critical trust-building opportunities where users form lasting impressions about reliability, fundamentally changing how I approach integration points in my designs.
The most challenging aspect of this project was changing my mindset about how to communicate with my teammates and stakeholder. Initially I thought small updates here and there would work, but quickly found out during our research planning that we needed to really "over communicate" ideas, questions, concerns and even smalls wins. Developing the ability to "speak the language" of stakeholders was brought to light for me, particularly in translating user research into compelling narratives.
Working on a capstone project that wouldn't be immediately implemented taught me how to design with both educational and professional standards in mind. Though our solutions wouldn't go live, we approached every decision as if it would, consulting with real stakeholders and gathering authentic user feedback. This dual perspective enhanced my ability to balance academic rigor with practical application—a skill that's proven valuable as I've transitioned to professional UX work.
The Teaching & Learning Excellence Division expressed interest in incorporating elements of our design into their future system upgrades, particularly the calendar integration and impact visualization features. If this were ever to come to fruition I would need to make sure to create:
Course evaluation participation dropped from 94% to 34% after going digital. Students forgot or didn’t see the value.
Led UX design and strategy, user research, usability testing, and stakeholder communication.
Conducted user interviews, created personas, mapped journeys, built a calendar integration, and validated with 10 users across 2 test rounds.
The 23% lift in tasks completion fosters student trust & retention—driving ACC’s equity‑focused enrollment plan toward 85,000 students by 2030.
