The Challenge
AccessScience, by McGraw-Hill, is an extensive digital resource of scientific knowledge, featuring thousands of articles written by top scientist around the world. McGraw-Hill wanted to increase adoption of its subscription based product by libraries and schools by appealing to the end user- the college or high school student.
The Solution
McGraw-Hill’s AccessScience needed a fresh look and refined user experience to engage users and increase adoption. The Apollo Matrix team did a redesign, focusing primarily on college students and appealing to their specific expectations and behaviors. The site can be viewed at AccessScience.com.
Tactics
Design
We started the project with an initial rebrush of the home page and secondary pages to improve overall look and feel. This revamp to the visual design addressed some immediate UX concerns, which allowed us to prepare for the transition to a new CMS platform where we could further improve the user experience.
Usability Testing
Using our eye-tracking partner, Tobii Technology, we conducted usability testing on college-aged participants so McGraw-Hill could better understand the users and what they are looking for in their learning experience. The Tobii test allowed us to observe how users interacted with many different aspects of the site. Following the session, we asked each participant a number of follow up questions, which further informed our redesign strategy.
Results
McGraw-Hill Education gained a better insight into the AccessScience user base. They were able to retain features that students loved and create a better user experience for students.
The redesigned site launched in November 2013 and was met with positive response. McGraw-Hill won a PROSE award from the Association of American Publishers in the category of 2013 Best Multidiscipline Platform/eProduct for the AccessScience site.
