Survey Analysis: Student-User Attitudes on and Engagement with MyWorldAbroad Website (3-min. read)

January 2019 - May 2019 | Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA | Team: Four UX Researchers

Image of MyWorldAbroad homepage with four overlays on its main navigation tabs (2019)

The global, career resource website, MyWorldAbroad (MWA) had been experiencing significant challenges to its business including a decrease in page visits and decline in paid-subscriptions from customers. MWA also believed that some aspects of its design, content, and interaction flow hindered user exploration of the site. Thus, MWA sought to learn more about its B2C customers’ characteristics, attitudes and behaviors in order improve how its users navigated the most frequented areas of its website. MWA’s B2C customers mainly consisted of North American university students and young professionals pursuing international careers and study.

Approach

In collaboration with my team, we conducted a concise two-week user survey study (including a pilot and final survey) to gather demographic, attitudinal, and behavioral data from MWA's users. Our aim was to understand their experience with MyWorldAbroad as a desktop website, including pain points during navigation.

To assess the website's value, we segmented users based on frequency of use. The top 500 users were considered frequent, with a minimum of four sessions in the past six months (from when the study was conducted). The 300 most recent users, who had only visited the website once, were classified as infrequent. We distributed similar surveys to both groups using Qualtrics and provided a small gift card as compensation

Process

I orchestrated this study as the project manager, overseeing client interaction, spearheading ResearchOps, assessing survey content, and refining ultimate deliverables.

Stakeholder Interviews

We identified the metrics of success that MyWorldAbroad was not performing well in and recruited survey respondents.

Planning and Implementation

We formulated research questions for each category of characteristics, attitudes, and behaviors, and subsequently crafted survey questions per research question.

Co-synthesis and Sharing

We collaboratively analyzed data while independently elucidating specific discoveries. Afterwards, presented findings and suggestions to MWF founder.

Results

After analyzing data from 86 respondents, our findings shed light on user satisfaction rating for the most frequented user flows, users motivations to purchase international study and job opportunities, and the influence academic level had on users’ expectations of content the site provided.

Some of our recommendations included:

  • Prioritizing improvements to Job Boards, followed by Internship Resources, and Articles user flows.

  • Incorporating a content strategy that encourages traditionally underrepresented groups to pursue global careers and study.

  • Directing relevant content to users per their academic level (e.g., 1st yr undergraduate, 2nd yr undergraduate).

Some Qualtrics Analytic Data Screenshots from the Survey Study

 

Impact

After triangulating our findings with additional mixed-methods and qualitative studies, including a heuristic evaluation and user interviews, we discussed the results with the founder, who provided the following update

Statement from MWA founder about the impact of the multiple research studies that my team and I conducted, including the user survey study.