Here's the site as it was when I observed it. I found the original navigation solution to be a little convoluted. Frankly, there was just TOO much navigation. Side menus, drop downs, breadcrumbs that weren't breadcrumbs but were also drop downs, and a course scheduling solution that required multiple tabs to be open to see what courses you still needed to take and track your progress.  A lot of choices, not a lot of payoff, and a heavy burden on our user's cognitive load. I set out to simplify.

Because I was approaching this interface problem with a navigational solution, I wanted to go a bit deeper into the planning phase and work out how the user would move through a new system in order to get where they needed to go. My next step was establishing some task flows that reflected the users goals. I came up with a couple of them and debated the pros and cons of each.

I ultimately went with Task Flow 1. I felt this sort of structure was more supportive of our user's goals, as it presented more information on single pages, and gave shorter distances between clicks. I knew I wanted to use a dashboard type UI to implement this flow. Now, I just had to put pencil to paper.

I sketched through some solutions for my dashboard and a few more screens , including a current courses page and a progress tracking page. After working through some layouts and doing critique with classmates, I chose my best received designs to move on to the wireframing phase.

Finally, some wireframes. I worked through and polished up my designs. I wanted a friendly, approachable feeling to the dashboard and an interface that gave students more control over their view. To achieve this, I created wireframes that feature rounded edges, icons, cards and collapsible elements.