The Student Web Awards (SWA) redesign prototype was created by myself, Tiffany Olek, and Grace Schramka for DES 370 User Experience Design in fall 2018. The original site was created in part by our professor, Robert Fraher.
The Student Web Awards is an annual competition where students from around the world can show off their work and receive recognition. Each year, SWA received more submissions, until in 2016 there were too many for the three judges to properly evaluate and they decided to declare a hiatus. With this in mind, our professor assigned our class with the task of redesigning the SWA site for a larger audience. We were given a huge amount of creative freedom for our redesign.
My teammates and I decided not to redesign the logo, so that the past visitors would recognize it. We did, however, change many parts of the site's design, including the color choice, layout, and font. Some new features were also added - for example, our prototype allows for visitors to create an account, which is now a requirement for anyone who would like to submit work to the competition. Additionally, employers are able to sign up to post job offers and view student work. Since employers and students have different needs, users are asked which they category are upon signing up, effectively creating employer and student accounts with different functionalities.
I was happy to work in a team for this project, because we were able to bounce ideas off each other and rely on each other's strengths. I'm very proud that we were able to collaborate with one another to produce the prototype you see now.
Software used: Axure RP, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe InDesign
Time spent individually: >30 hours
Time spent as a group: >90 hours
Our redesigned prototype is fully functional across mobile and desktop browsers.
A job board featuring postings from employers is visible to users with a student account.
Both employer and student accounts can view user profiles.
