UX · CONTENT · PERFORMANCE · AI

UX, IA & Content Review

Digital-first UX for current students

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On this page:

  • Overview
  • My Role
  • The Problem
  • What Students Told Us
  • Our Approach
  • Quick Wins
  • Medium-Term Enhancements
  • Career Readiness
  • Student Life & Community
  • Outcomes
  • Impact
Visual introduction to the Holmesglen Current Students UX review.

Overview

Holmesglen engaged me to review the current experience of their students and identify practical ways to enhance clarity, task flow, and mobile usability.

The focus was simple:

Help students find what matters - fast, confidently, and without extra steps.

This meant shifting from a content-led structure to a task-led, student-centred one.

My Role

  • UX and content audit
  • Task-based IA redesign
  • Mobile-first experience recommendations
  • Career readiness pathway strategy
  • Recommendations for future AI-enabled support

The Problem

Students weren’t struggling because content didn’t exist; they were struggling because it wasn’t easy to find. The information architecture wasn’t aligned to how students searched or moved through the ecosystem.

Key challenges identified:

  • Important tasks weren’t immediately visible
  • Searches took longer than expected
  • Mobile journeys were lengthy and inconsistent
  • Categories didn’t match student mental models
Visual summary showing that almost half of student visits occur on mobile.

What Students Told Us

Across NPS and brand insights, students consistently expressed the same three needs, and these became our north stars.

Visual representation of student feedback themes about clarity and finding information.

Our Approach

We restructured the experience to reflect student tasks, not content categories. This meant:

  • Surfacing high-value tasks early
  • Reducing unnecessary steps
  • Improving readability and task labelling
  • Retiring hidden or duplicated navigation
  • Prioritising mobile-first flow over desktop-led design

Together, these changes created a more intuitive, student-centred experience.

Quick Wins

We delivered immediate clarity through fast, low-effort improvements:

  • Tiles for core tasks like results, fees, forms and requests
  • Clearer, action-oriented labels
  • Shorter page lengths and simpler page structures

These improvements are focused on removing friction quickly.

Medium-Term Enhancements

We also outlined a roadmap for future improvements:

  • Full task-based IA
  • Retirement of the left-hand navigation
  • Mobile-first card layouts
  • Centralised Forms & Requests
  • Optional personalisation
  • AI or chat support for common tasks

These will lift the experience toward a more modern, connected student hub.

Career Readiness Pathways

Students wanted clearer pathways to placements, jobs and support, but these tools were buried or scattered. We unified these into a single Get Job Ready destination.

This centralisation boosted visibility and confidence.

Visual overview of the unified career support hub concept.

Student Life & Community

We surfaced wellbeing, events and student life content more prominently, making it easier for students to discover resources, explore activities and feel more connected on campus.

A more visible, coherent structure supports belonging, readiness and momentum.

Outcomes

  • Faster and more intuitive task completion
  • Higher visibility of support and career pathways
  • Stronger mobile usability across key journeys
  • Clearer, more confident self-service behaviour
  • A more connected and student-centred Current Students hub

Impact

This review set the strategic direction for a more intuitive, future-ready student experience. It reduced friction, elevated high-value tasks, clarified pathways and laid the foundation for personalisation and AI-enabled support.

Ultimately, it created a clearer and more connected experience, one that supports belonging, readiness and long-term momentum.

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