Personas & Journey Maps | Site Dev | Palmetto Ridge Junior College

Research method

We listened before we drew anything: students, staff and the data the old site had been collecting for years.

10

Student interviews

6

Staff interviews and ride-alongs, including Admissions and Communications editors

900

Survey responses in English and Spanish

90

Days of site analytics

All participants, figures and quotes are part of this fictional case study.

What the research told us

1Phones come first. 71% of visits came from a phone, and most program pages were PDFs that did not fit the screen.

2Cost and schedule decide. Students asked “how much” and “when are classes” before they asked anything about the program itself.

3Families help. First-generation students often research with a parent or grandparent, sometimes in Spanish.

4Staff are stretched. Admissions and Communications each lost hours a week to the shared inbox and to IT tickets for small updates.

Who answered the survey (900)

Prospective students: 38%

Current students: 44%

Parents and family members: 12%

Faculty and staff: 6%

Answered in Spanish: 17%

Four people we designed for

Each persona is a composite of real patterns from the research. Every major page had to work for at least one of them.

DG

Destiny Grant, 17

High-school senior, future nursing student

Lives: Cypress Landing, with her mom and grandmother
Status: First-generation, dual enrollment in two Palmetto Ridge courses
Device: Phone, almost always
Wants: Associate Degree in Nursing
Helpers: Her grandmother, who reads best in Spanish

Goals

Find out what it takes to get into Nursing and how long it lasts
Understand the real cost and what financial aid covers
Show her grandmother the plan in a language she reads comfortably
Ask a question without having to call during school hours

Frustrations

Program details were in PDFs that would not open well on her phone
Words like “prerequisite” and “FAFSA” with no plain explanation
She sent an email to admissions and never heard back

I don’t want to look lost. I just want somebody to tell me the steps in order.
— Destiny, interview 3

How the site serves her

Program finder Admissions steps Request info

MH

Marcus Holloway, 34

Returning adult student

Lives: Summerton Road, 25 minutes from campus
Work: Warehouse shift lead, days
Family: Two kids, 6 and 9
Wants: Accounting, evenings or online
History: One semester at a four-year school in 2010

Goals

Find programs he can finish around a full-time job
Know whether his old credits count before he pays anything
See the total cost and how long it will really take
Talk to a person who understands adult students

Frustrations

The old site spoke only to recent high-school graduates
Class format (evening, online, hybrid) was not shown anywhere on program pages
Transfer credit rules were buried in a 40-page catalog PDF

If I have to start over from zero, I need to know that now, not after I’ve paid.
— Marcus, interview 7

How the site serves him

Filter by evening and online Adult and transfer students Request info

JR

Jordan Reyes, 20

Current sophomore, Computer Science

Plan: Transfer to Clemson next fall
Work: Part-time IT help desk on campus
Device: Phone and a school laptop
Uses: The Hawk Portal several times a week
Worry: Missing a deadline that delays transfer

Goals

See today’s classes and what is due this week at a glance
Know right away if a hold will block registration
Track degree progress toward his transfer plan
Register on day one for the classes he needs

Frustrations

Deadlines lived in emails, flyers and a PDF calendar
He learned about a hold only when registration failed
Advising booking meant calling during class hours

Just put everything that’s due in one place. I’ll check it, I promise.
— Jordan, interview 9

How the site serves him

Hawk Portal Academic calendar Campus news

MA

Maya Alvarez

Director of Communications, CMS editor

Team: Herself, one writer, one student intern
Publishes: News, events, homepage features, alerts
Old CMS: 5 days on average from draft to live
Role: Communications (approves and publishes)
Needs: A dashboard that tells her what to do next

Goals

Publish a story the same day it happens
See what is waiting for her review without hunting
Let Athletics and Admissions edit their own pages safely
Undo a mistake in seconds with revisions

Frustrations

Every layout change needed an IT ticket
No review step, so errors went live or nothing went live
Nine templates that each behaved differently

When I log in I want the system to tell me what needs me today. Not a menu with forty items.
— Maya, staff ride-along 2

How the site serves her

Staff Dashboard News Events

Journey map: Destiny, from curious to enrolled

Five stages over about seven months. The lowest points became our design priorities.

	Discover	Explore programs	Request info	Apply & FAFSA	Orientation & register
Doing	Hears about Palmetto Ridge from her dual enrollment teacher and searches on her phone	Compares Nursing with Medical Assisting; looks for cost and length	Fills out a short form one night after work	Starts the application and FAFSA with her mom	Attends orientation, meets an advisor, signs up for classes
Thinking	“Is this a real option for someone like me?”	“How long is this, and can we afford it?”	“Will anyone actually answer?”	“What does this form even mean?”	“Am I in the right classes?”
Feeling	Curious	Overwhelmed	Hopeful	Anxious	Proud
Pain points	Homepage spoke in campus jargon; no clear starting point	Program info in PDFs; no cost or schedule	Old form went to a shared inbox with no reply	FAFSA steps scattered across three pages	Registration dates hard to find
Opportunities	Pathway tiles and a “Start here” path on the homepage	Filters and side-by-side facts in the program finder	Five-field Request Info form tracked by Admissions	Plain-language steps on Apply and Tuition & aid	Deadlines and advising in the Hawk Portal

Empathy map: Destiny

What we heard and saw, sorted into four quadrants to keep her point of view in every design review.

Says

“I want to be a nurse like my aunt.”
“Can you just tell me the steps?”
“My grandma wants to read it too.”

Thinks

College might be too expensive for us
Everyone else already knows how this works
A local start could save money before a BSN

Does

Researches on her phone late at night
Screenshots pages to show family
Asks her dual enrollment teacher for help

Feels

Excited about a clear career
Nervous about forms and money
Responsible for getting it right for her family