The University of Colorado Boulder’s User Experience Research & Design (UXRD) team (part of the Office of Information Technology (OIT) includes staff and student employee user experience (UX) researchers and designers who partner with the university to improve the technology experiences of students, faculty and staff.
The UXRD team seeks to provide students with meaningful student employment so that they gain professional experience related to their interests. In addition to filling specific roles in UX research, writing and design, all student employees regularly spend time becoming subject matter experts on complex processes like applying for Scholarships and Financial Aid, documenting and helping staff understand the student side of the experience prior to larger research studies or design sessions. All student employees also support information architecture and design reviews of campus websites and tools to help partner offices understand where students might struggle. Student employees also present their research, content and design work to campus leadership and stakeholders. When students are in the room representing student needs, campus partners listen more closely and conversations are more productive and generative.
“By having students be active participants in the design and development of [student] technologies, the campus can ensure that what’s being made will actually help address student needs in their academic journey.” - Undergraduate UX Writer & Researcher Student Employee
The team’s undergraduate Student Assistant UX Writer & Researcher writes and researches student-centered copy and content for user interface components (i.e., buttons, menus), informational websites and other email communications (i.e. recruitment emails for studies, announcements for new services and tools).
The Student Assistant UX Researchers create and lead the team’s research studies in close collaboration with other partners such as business analysts and service owners. This includes fine-tuning research goals, writing scripts, facilitating usability sessions, summarizing learnings and identifying recommended changes and next steps.
“My proudest accomplishment of being a UX professional in higher education is that I’m able to improve administrative digital tools for students, faculty and staff to foster a more empowering and student-centered experience. School is already stressful, we can help make it easier.” - Graduate UX Researcher Student Employee
The undergraduate Student Assistant UX/UI Designers work closely with the staff designers to design, iterate and then hand over the team’s work for implementation. This includes finding design inspiration for ideation sessions, turning research learnings into prototypes in Figma for usability testing, and ensuring accessibility, business and branding requirements are met.
"Students bring a user-centric perspective as the primary end-users [...]. Their real-time feedback is invaluable for identifying and addressing usability issues and guiding necessary improvements. Moreover, students bring fresh perspectives and enthusiasm, often pushing the platform to be more cutting-edge and aligned with current trends." - Graduate Student UX Researcher
In addition to providing significant value as contributors to the UXRD team’s efforts, student employees help the staff more deeply empathize with the student experience and therefore create more student-centered tools and technologies for the university.
The UXRD team shared this tip with One IT:
Don’t just think about hiring students with technical backgrounds in your IT units. UX-minded student employees can provide value to any team that is customer or student-facing, like a call or help center or a communications or web team.
Written by Courtney Fell, Program Manager, CU Boulder User Experience Research & Design.
This article is part of the One IT Student Leadership Program’s 3rd Quarter Report featuring the impact of student teams in higher education.