Wharton School, Women Development

Created a webpage that encompasses all points of interest for Wharton alumnae, include alumnae only programming as well as all alumni programming that supports women as well as students and Penn resources.

Project Duration

This project began in May 2022 and was launched in November 2023.

The Problem

Wharton Women are graduates of The Wharton programs who need a webpage they can use at all stages of their career because they want to connect with and learn from fellow alumnae, faculty, and current students.

The Goal

Create a focal point for alumnae to make it easy for them to find information, connect with one another and see current information about students, alumnae and faculty research.
Highlight the School's commitment of and support for women.
Highlight faculty scholarship that addresses gender issues in the workplace and alumnae stores of interest
The alumnae initiatives will also provide opportunities for all alumni/the business community to better understand issues specific to women in the workplace.

Wharton Alumni

My Role

Web Designer, UX Designer, Web Designer, Case Study Writer, Project Manager

Responsibilities

I developed the wireframing, prototyping, solutions for organizing content, and content library system.
Emily amassed the content - identified what would be included, organized in a logical manner.
Initially I created a list of all opportunities for women - students and alumnae - Wharton and Penn. I then categorized them as a way to streamline the site. The buckets are: Network; Career Support; Learn; Connect with Students and Penn Resources. We also include student and alumnae stories and faculty research

User Research: Summary

Wharton Women are graduates of The Wharton programs who need a webpage they can use at all stages of their career because they want to connect with and learn from fellow alumnae, faculty, and current students.

Wharton Alumni

User Research: Pain Points

1

Specification

Identify what to include - we agreed this was phase one. There is a lot more that can be added overtime.

2

Project Planning

Find a way to logically order things that will display nicely on the website.

3

Deployment

Seek approval from external partners (mostly Penn)

4

Deployment

The stories and research takes a lot of time (I'm doing quarterly updates). I also wanted to feature stories and research - I developed a listing from Wharton Stories, Wharton Magazine and faculty research in the popular press.

Wharton Undergraduates Persona

Persona: Wharton  Women Undergraduates

Problem Statement: Wharton Women are graduates of The Wharton programs who need a webpage they can use at all stages of their career because they want to connect with and learn from fellow alumnae, faculty, and current students.

Wharton MBA Graduates Persona

Persona: Wharton Women MBA Graduates

Problem Statement: Wharton Women are graduates of The Wharton programs who need a webpage they can use at all stages of their career because they want to connect with and learn from fellow alumnae, faculty, and current students.

Wharton Women Wireframes

Wireframes

The goal for this first wireframe was thinking of layouts that could help organize all of the detailed information included in Wharton Women. 

Wharton Women Low Fidelity Wireframe

Digital Wireframes

The first version had a lot more text than was necessary. We eliminated much of that, moving to simple organization.

Adding the women's collage and Wharton Women logo really made the site come to life

Wharton Women Low Fidelity Wireframe

While the site has a unique feel - we wanted to be sure the common links to things like Update your Info or Create a Pennkey - looked familiar.

User Survey: Parameters

Study type:

EA internal colleagues 

Location:

Virtual

Participants:

I held two sessions with the EA alumnae working group.

Length:

Each session was 45 mins

User survey: findings

Mobirise

1

Initially I included a lot of text - things moved to more images and links rather than text.

Mobirise

2

We talked about the layout and usability - Organization of the Research & Profiles came out of these discussions - we looked at how other sites do this and added tags to make it more usable.

Mobirise

3

We needed a interesting image for the landing page - it's hard to find one picture that captures all women - we developed a collage.

Images of before the usability study and after the usability study.

Mockups

The first version had a lot more text than was necessary. We eliminated much of that, moving to simple organization.

Adding the women's collage and Wharton Women logo really made the site come to life.

Images of before the usability study and after the usability study.

Mockups

Finalizing the layout for the Research & Profiles section took time. Deciding on on what images to use, what the titles should be and the tagging system took time.

Since the stories are on different sites, some links go do a landing page (that needs an image and content) and others link directly to the story. Understanding this took time.

Mockups Iterations

Early designs allowed for bucketing alumni resources based on identified categories, but after the user surveys, I added placed content in a specific hierarchical order. I also revised the design based on stakeholder feedback.

Key Mockups

Accessibility Considerations

Mobirise

1

Provided access to users with Dyslexia, vision impairment through adding meaningful alt text to images for screen readers.

Mobirise

2

All images, color, and text pass accessibility guidelines based on the combination of text color, background color and text size.

Mobirise

3

There is a clear hierarchy of text and information. This will help users who use screen readers. It will also help users that struggle finding information on the on crowded webpages. 

Takeaways

Mobirise

Impact:
The new Wharton Women webpage provides a centralized resource for alumnae to find information on networking, career support, learnings, and connecting with students. 

Mobirise

What I learned:
Color is simple and has high contrast for easy navigation and reading.

Wharton Women Landing Page

High-fidelity
prototype

 

View Live Landing Page

Next Steps

Mobirise

1

We will have a new user survey to measure the success of Wharton Women webpage.

Mobirise

2

Conduct more user research to determine any new areas of need.

Mobirise

3

Continue to update the webpage based on user feedback and new available content.

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Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey Area

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hurkowitz@designurk.com
+1 856 701 7503

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