Go.SFU: SFU Student Portal Interface
Timeline: 3 weeks, October - November 2025. notes: Team work / UX.UI / HCI / Website Design Tools: Figma.
Team: Siqi Zhang, Kaiyi Sun, Lingzhi Yang.
Exploring possible improvements and re-design on Simon Fraser University's Student Portal known as Go.SFU to allow users to pay tuition, select courses, apply for scholarships, enrolment schedule and much more.
This project aims to pin point the possible challenges users (in this case students) go through using the original website, utilizing memory, cognition, and testing to provide solutions in lessening stress, reducing information overload and allow first time users (mainly first year students) to easily navigate the site with or without guided tutorial.
1. Decluttering the original website and collapsing information.
2. Determine importance of information and usage frequency.
3. Lessen stress on students during enrollment times and course selections.
4. Prototyping improved interface on Figma.
5. Focus on simplicity, aesthetic, and usability.
6. Universal accessibility regardless intelligence and language barriers.
Pain Points
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Cluttered interface causing info overload.
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Stress and inefficiency for students during course enrollment.
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Not universally accessible for first-year, transfer, and international students.
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No clear click feedback / fxns look the same.
Original Website Interface.
Compiled User Feedback-------------
4 Most Used Areas:
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My Schedule
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Enroll
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View My Grades
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Exam Schedule
5 Secondary Areas:
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Tuition Payment
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Credit Progress
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Financial Aid
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Admissions
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U-Pass / Athletics
* everything else is rarely used.
Information Sections
worked on research, ideation, and prototyping
Font, Aesthetic, Visibility on Tabs
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Research on user feedback with how frequently students need to interact with the collective information on original website.
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Re-arranging first, second and third priority items into collapsable sections to reduce information overload.
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Excluding unnecessary information pages that are not used.
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Group actionable items users need to or are recommended to complete such as waivers, application, and payments.
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Utilizing high contrast colours (red on white, black on white) for visibility on sections and important information (course enrollment).
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Students often forget where to find their specific course enrollment date and time as well as open enrollment, thus a dedicated highlight underneath course schedule helps as reminders.
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Consistent font choice, university colours (red, black, white) to keep branding and visual identity.
worked on research, ideation, and prototyping
final interface prototype
GUIDING CONSIDERATIONS BEHIND DESIGNS
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Replacing unorganized course schedule with the commonly interacted MySchedule for final course times / semester content improves clarity and readability regardless of language and intelligence barriers. First time users understand easily.
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Original interface increases copious amounts of stress and anxiety that students already experiencing upon facing the rush of course selection against other students for open spots in lectures and labs. The cluttered and inefficient layout makes this worse having to manage tasks under emotional pressure. This negatively affects memory and intelligence in fright of panic.
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Most information and sections are rarely even touched upon by students and are unnecessary to the student portal upon arrival of website.
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First-years, international, and transfer students struggle with navigating website as a first time user without any tutorial guidance. Thus an universally accessible interface should be included in consideration for re-design for less entry friction.
Proposed Improvements:
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Having real user testing and finishing the interface fully as an interactive site to provide user feedback
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Consider introducing an introductory tutorial for first time users as onboarding the website interface.
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Implement chatbots and cues for users that may still be lost during usage.