Cambridge Partnership for Education (CPE) partners with governments around the world to support a shared goal of making education transformation a reality.
The Partnership for Education team brings together understanding and expertise in education reform from Cambridge Assessment and Cambridge University Press, supported by the collective knowledge and global network of the University of Cambridge. Make it Clear have worked with Cambridge University Press for over 7 years on a range of projects and platforms by providing UX, UI, user research, and digital support.
The challenge
The existing Cambridge Partnership for Education website provided top level information on the entity and their offering. As their services expanded and elements of Cambridge Assessment and Education Reform merged to become a single entity, they came to Make it Clear to create a new unified site which better conveyed their offering and highlighted their experience and expertise.
Our approach
We always recommend a research-led approach to ensure user-centric decision making. To gain an in-depth understanding of the different users and their needs we conducted interviews with users representative of top-level leaders (i.e. Ministers), civil servants, government agencies, stakeholders, international development organisations, and local education authorities, as well as subject matter experts from the CPE team. Each of these users had nuances in their objectives for visiting the site, whether this be to gather information to relay or to gain a quick impression on credibility and suitability; it was vital that users could quickly understand the offering and easily get a sense of the Cambridge team and their expertise. The insights gathered informed a set of five personas and user journeys with the aim to create a shared understanding of users across teams and support decision making.
Following the definition stage we were able to create tailored user stories and task flows for each identified persona group. This ensured that all of these had their needs represented in the new site. To support the identified actions and content needed we mapped a new information architecture (IA) and developed wireframes of each task flow. The wireframe prototype was then tested in research sessions to validate the structure and actions which could be performed as well as expectations on content and feedback on terminology used. Conducting research with participants which had understanding of each persona but also different regions was vital to validate against different user needs but also cultural specificities. From the feedback gathered we were then able to iterate and refine the wireframes with the Cambridge Partnership for Education team.
Wireframes were then visualised in the UI design stage reflecting the Cambridge Partnership for Education branding. We then provided support to the Cambridge team and their partner development agency Zoocha, to create a smooth transition into the development process and ensure the front-end design matched the design specifications.
Business impact
The new look website showcases the expertise and experience of the Cambridge Partnership for Education team, supporting users to understand the organisation and their offering as a leader in Education transformation. Take a look at the new Cambridge Partnership for Education website here.
“It was extremely important for our new website to be based on user research; our audience is niche and their needs are specific. Working with Make It Clear meant that our audience was at the heart of the project at all times – from identifying their goals and challenges, to solving them through user stories and journey mapping. The wireframes and UI designs were crucial in making sure the handover between design and development was as seamless as possible. It was a pleasure working with the team at Make It Clear.” – Aisling Miller, Senior Digital Marketing Manager, Cambridge University Press & Assessment.
Find out more
Take a look at how we reflected the exciting merger of Cambridge University Press and Cambridge Assessment in their new corporate website here.
To learn more about design systems, check out our article.