top of page

 PROJECT OVERVIEW 

Pratt News is a digital platform that showcases the diversified creativity of the Pratt Community through shared stories, design ideas, and updates. Our team of UX designers /researchers from Pratt Institute's Information Experience Design (IxD) program joined with the Marketing and Communications team at Pratt News to test the performance of the content featured on news.pratt.edu. In doing so, we used data extracted from web analytics, heatmaps, and recordings to guide our research. Through careful analysis of the layout, the content hierarchy, and traffic of specific content types, we provided recommendations for improvements to the Pratt News site that we hope will later inform the extensive redesign of the institute-wide site, Pratt.edu.

 OUR TEAM: 

Ali Çiftci

​

Aimee Shi

​

Wicky Wu

​

Amiya Dewan

​

 MY ROLE: 

UX Designer / Researcher 

 TOOLS:  

Google Analytics 

Hotjar 

Miro 

Data Studio 

MIRO HELPED US DEFINE OUR  STUDY GOALS:

WEB ANALYTICS, HEATMAPS, AND RECORDINGS WERE OUR METHODS:

Web Analytics - We used web analytic data from google studio and examined the bounce rate, exit pages, pageviews and time spent on specific pages to figure out what content users engage with the most and the least. 

​

Heatmaps and Scrollmaps - Visual reports from Hotjar allowed us to see what elements and sections within a given page were being clicked, moused over, and interacted with. 


Recordings - Recorded video data of users interacting with specific web pages allowed us to get a better understanding of user flows and behaviors with the content.

REDESIGNED PAGES OUTPERFORM PAGES NOT REDESIGNED

​

 

Google Analytics showed us that: 

​

  • many redesigned pages received more traffic than pages that did not have the new design applied

  • Out of the top 10 pages on Pratt News, 6/10 had high bounce rates over 50%, meaning that users would only view one page or article before leaving the site. 

  • 10/10 of the top 10 pages had exit rates well over 50%

  • High bounce rates and exit rates informs us that content can be improved to get users to stay on the site longer and interact with more pages 

THIS TELLS US → REDESIGN INITIATIVES ARE WORTH IT!

Although redesign projects may be costly and time-consuming, they are worth it. Redesigns on any given scale can present an opportunity for companies to build rapport with users and keep them engaged.

USERS WANT TO BROWSE THROUGH CONTENT

​

 

Heatmaps, Analytics and Recordings showed us that: 

​

  • Users quickly scroll up and down on a page to browse the content (Data from recordings)

  • highlighted articles on the News homepage gained more traffic than the rest on the page (Google analytics)

  • Based on the Hotjar scrollmap, only two articles were above the average fold, telling us that users are limited in the amount of content they can see before scrolling 

  • The links to “view all articles” and “load more” receive a significant amount of clicks, revealing that users wish to view more content

A CAREFUL UTILIZATION OF SPACE CAN MAXIMIZE USER INTERESTS: 

To make a great first impression and captivate the users' attention as soon as they land on the page while also lessening the exit and bounce rates, we suggest: 

 

  • Reduce the sizes of images and implementing a new grid system that allows users to browse more content before scrolling.

 BEFORE 

 AFTER 

THE USER’S JOURNEY CEASES AFTER READING ONE ARTICLE

​

 

Heatmap click and mouse movements showed us that: 

​

  • a majority of users drop off before reaching the end of an article. 

  •  Visitors who do manage to reach the bottom of the article page followed up by clicking on the “Related News” section

MAKE COMPELLING CONTENT VISIBLE SO THAT IT GUIDES USERS TO MORE CONTENT

We suggest: 

​

  • Relocating the “Related News” to side menu  

  • Change the font color of related news articles to a more muted shade of black or grey so that the user does not get distracted from reading the article itself. 

 BEFORE 

 AFTER 

USERS LOSE INTEREST BEFORE VIEWING ARTICLE TITLES ACROSS ALL DEVICES

 Scrollmaps showed us that: 

​

  • Across mobile, desktop, and tablets most users are not viewing the titles of articles at all since the images are too large 

  • Titles across devices exist below the average fold 

  • Users lose interest to scroll if they do not know what the content is about

PRIORITIZE PUNCHY HEADLINES

We suggest: 

​

  • Relocating article headlines and titles above the images

  • Make title font size smaller on mobile devices to increase legibility

WHAT OUR CLIENTS HAD TO SAY

"Your recommendations are informative and actionable" 

"Some of the issues you mentioned like image size were originally design concerns that were heavily disputed during the redesign process" 

"We hope to utilize your findings and suggestions as we work on our website development project"

Photo of IxD peers and Clients taken after client presentations 

TAKING CONTENT TO EVEN HIGHER HEIGHTS

Although two weeks of aggregate data were informative enough to offer suggestions to improve the site, we suggest that :

​

  • Pratt News continue tracking clickstream data over a more extended period to understand user patterns and behaviors better.

  • The longer data is compiled on Google Analytics; the more resourceful this data will become in increasing the user experience of Pratt News.

​

​

For further information in regards to this project check out our: 

​

​

bottom of page