eduWeb2008 in 140 words – Listening to Our Users: How Imperial College London used ‘mental models’ to guide their redesign by Pamela Michael, Head of Communications Projects at Imperial College London, UK

Note from Karine: This year, I’ve asked all the eduWeb speakers working in universities/colleges to share in 140 words or less the biggest take-away from their presentation or table talk. If you’ve attended this session, feel free to weigh in by posting a comment, a question or a suggestion.

The principal conclusion from our presentation is the importance of undertaking detailed user research at the beginning of redesign projects and crucially, really listening to what the users say.

User research gave the Imperial project team an insight into how audiences were using or anticipated using the site and highlighted commonalities in tasks they wanted to perform and information they were hoping to find.

User interviews informed “mental models,” which played a key part in defining the site’s information architecture. These involved identifying discrete tasks from user interviews, grouping similar tasks under broad goals and highlighting frequently mentioned topics.

This task orientated approach ensured the site met the demands of its various audience groups and helped justify and support navigation and content decisions to internal stakeholders – something which has helped maintain the integrity of the site since its launch.