Project I

Project
UI/UX Design Class - Path@Penn Redesign

Year
04/11/2023

For Penn students, course registration is the most stressful week of the semester—second only to finals. Every second matters, but Path@Penn forces users to click through unnecessary tabs, hunt for information, and waste time.

This case study asks: what if Path@Penn worked with students, not against them?

Research & Insight

I began with a central question: what are the main user pain points that slow down the course registration process on Path@Penn?

To explore this, I conducted a Google Forms survey and follow-up interviews with 20 Penn undergraduates who actively use Path@Penn for course registration.
Animated Pie Chart – Course Add Time

67% of respondents
reported it takes 2–5 minutes to register for a course, while only 13.3% managed to complete it in under a minute.

40% of respondents
expressed dissatisfaction with the tab system. Because Path@Penn only supports a single active tab, students must backtrack repeatedly to return to their course cart—slowing down the process.

Additional Findings:

The “degree audit” feature emerged as a source of confusion, mentioned in 9 out of 20 responses.
Users tended to either click "search & register" or "add/drop courses," but not both.
Users found the two "submit" schedule buttons redundant.

Overall, students agreed that registration could be faster and less stressful if the system:

Removed clutter on the landing page.
Reduced the need to exit and re-enter tabs during course selection.
Merged functionally similar steps in the submission process.

Iterations

Wireframe of landing page

Low-Fidelity Prototype of landing page

Path@Penn: Revamped

Advanced course registration website - made for university students with utmost attention to their priorities