The College Scorecard
The College Scorecard is a free online tool that provides students, families, and educators with reliable data to make informed decisions about college.
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Visit the Live Site >
Client: U.S. Department of Education
My Role: UX Researcher, UX Designer, Accessibility Specialist
User Research and Redesign
I led a team that conducted 24 one-on-one user interviews to assess the usefulness and helpfulness of the College Scorecard website.
Notable outcomes:
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A redesign of the site's home page
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Creation of a plain language glossary (forthcoming)
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​Client trust and buy-in to conduct additional user research​​
Background
Sessions were conducted on Zoom with a diverse population of high school students.
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Research Questions:
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Are users able to successfully use all of the features of College Scorecard?
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Can users successfully interpret College Scorecard data? 

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What are participants’ perceptions of the website overall?

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What would make the site more useful or easier to use?
What We Learned
​Attitudinal Findings:
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Participants generally liked the clean and straightforward interface, though some found it bland or outdated.
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They felt that the connection to the government made the site feel trustworthy, and thought it was a good resource for high school students.
Behavioral Findings:
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Participants scrolled past the Search input on the home page and clicked on the Resource links at the bottom of the page.
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​Participants struggled if they couldn't immediately think of a school name to search.​​​​​
Recommendation - Home Page
Recommendation: Emphasize Search input, provide multiple points of entry to the Search Results page, and highlight important site features.
Original Scorecard Home Page
Home Page after Redesign
Key Goals:
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Emphasize the search input while providing "quick search" buttons for easy entry to the search results page
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There are now four ways to get to the search results page without having to scroll​
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Provide details about what information can be found on the site and how to use major site features
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Update copy for plain language and SEO improvements
Outcomes
After designing the new home page, we conducted 5 additional user interviews to confirm the choices made during the redesign. The new home page went live in January 2025.
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The new design led to an increased engagement rate (+12.31%) and lowered the page's bounce rate (-14.92%).
Accessibility on the College Scorecard
The Scorecard team prioritizes accessibility from the outset of both design and development for all new site enhancements. Our approach ensures that inclusive user experiences are not an afterthought, but a foundational element of our process. We are actively modernizing our site’s underlying technology to more effectively identify, address, and prevent accessibility issues.
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As part of this commitment, I lead regular accessibility audits to evaluate our website’s compliance with established standards (WCAG). I work closely with the development team to triage findings, ensure accessibility-related tickets are properly documented, and confirm that each issue is resolved in a timely and thorough manner.