Finding support shouldn’t
need a campus map.

Laurier’s wellness information was divided across separate units. “Wellness” meant different things to different people, and students had to figure out both what they needed and which office could help.

The project followed a multi-campus student-wellness review initiated by the Deans of Students Offices in winter 2021, facilitated by Patrick Boot and Glen Lombard of Unless Design Partners. Our work took place the following winter term.

I compared Laurier with Guelph, Brock, Waterloo, Carleton, and the University of Toronto.

Across the sites reviewed in 2022, we found similar navigation challenges and an emphasis on mental health rather than an integrated view of wellness. Carleton’s resource finder offered simplified, digestible navigation, but finding the finder itself was a challenge.

We used the wellness-review data alongside unofficial student conversations on Spotted at Laurier and Reddit. These helped surface concerns, rather than serving as a representative student survey.

We inventoried 93 wellness-related resources, including the Wellness Centre, Academic Advising, and Financial Aid. An existing seven-dimension wellness framework gave us a starting structure.

The inventory distinguished educational resources, one-to-one support, peer support, and resources associated with the dimensions. It let us consider what a pathway should return before polishing the interface.

We moved from sketches to interactive prototypes, using journey maps to establish flows and Laurier’s website to align the widget with its branding. The team used usability heuristics to structure the initial screens.

Each version changed in response to usability sessions. The important corrections were about discovery and meaning, rather than simply making the screens more polished.

The final prototype uses guided questions to move from a broad need to relevant support. The coursework pathway offers choices such as managing workload, finding math or writing support, and choosing self-guided strategies or one-to-one help.

The result cards bring services and practical access details together. The prototype also offers a restart, explanations, and an option to send the resource results to a Laurier email address.

I conducted moderated usability testing with two separate groups of five participants, avoiding prior exposure to the other interface. The focus was first- and second-year students with limited experience navigating wellness webpages.

I assessed time on task, task success, SUS, confidence, and NPS. Scenarios covered finding social connection, support for school-related stress, urgent help, and information about the compass and its pathways.

This was an early experience of working in a team that supported one another’s strengths and weaknesses. My biggest retrospective change would be adding a card sort earlier, so students could help define the categories instead of us guessing what the labels meant to them.

We explored three pathways. Completing and testing the remaining flows, and collaborating with wellness offices on content and maintenance, were proposed next steps rather than completed implementation.