UX · UI · Website
Rennes School of Business
Information architecture and content hierarchy brought under control on a large business-school site.
- Client
- Rennes School of Business
- Project type
- UX · UI · Website
- My role
- Information architecture, UX, interface design and content hierarchy
- Scope
- Information architecture, Content hierarchy, Interface design, Component system
Context
A great deal of content and several audiences on one site: applicants, current students, corporate partners and press.
Navigation mirrored the school’s org chart rather than the reasons people arrive on the site.
The result: visitors lost their way before finding what they came for, and the priority journeys drowned in content aimed at everyone else.
Main objectives
- 01Enhance the process of discovering and learning about the school’s programs.
- 02Design a simplified navigation experience that’s both seamless and customer-centric.
- 03Improve the overall customer journey for prospective students and other stakeholders.
- 04Implement a cleaner, more intuitive design that aligns with the existing structure.
Key challenges
01
Partial redesign constraint.
Since only selected pages were being updated, the new design had to seamlessly integrate with the existing site without causing inconsistencies.
02
User journey optimisation.
Understanding how users actually navigate the site, and improving that path while keeping interactions intuitive.
03
Balancing simplicity with depth.
The new design needed to be visually appealing and user-friendly without oversimplifying complex program details.
Process
- 01Understand
- 02Define
- 03Ideate
- 04Design & implement
User research
01
Heuristic evaluation
— reviewing the current site’s usability issues.
02
User flow analysis
— identifying where users struggled to find relevant information.
03
Competitor benchmarking
— analysing similar institutions’ websites for best practices.
Design strategy
01
Shaping the architecture
- Simplified program categorisation for faster, more intuitive navigation.
- Reorganised key content sections to surface the most important details at a glance.
02
UI & UX enhancements
- A modern, consistent visual language that blends with the existing site while improving usability.
- Interactive elements — dropdowns and filters — to streamline program selection.
- Progressive disclosure, so users are never overwhelmed with everything at once.
03
User path optimisation
- A clearer, step-by-step journey for people researching programs.
- Better CTA placement to drive engagement and conversion.
- Improved mobile responsiveness for a broader audience.
Wireframes & prototypes
I started with low-fidelity wireframes to test different layouts and user flows. After several rounds of stakeholder feedback, I moved to high-fidelity designs, refining visual elements while keeping usability intact.
Usability testing
I ran tests with potential users to gather feedback and address pain points — unclear CTA labels and inconsistent spacing among them — and made sure accessibility best practices were followed throughout.
Decision
I reorganised navigation around user intent instead of the organisational chart. Each primary audience got its own entry path, and shared content moved one level down.
“A site’s structure should answer questions, not describe an organisation.”
Outcome
Navigation now answers "why am I here" instead of mirroring the school’s org chart — applicants, students and corporate partners each get their own entry path instead of one overloaded menu. The information that matters is visible on the first screen, not several clicks deep.
The component system is documented and ready to extend — Rennes SB’s team builds new programme pages to the same rules without needing to check in on each one.
Got something similar?
In a 30-minute call we’ll work out whether I’m right for the project. Afterwards you’ll know what scope makes sense and what should happen next.