Conveying written information in a convoluted, intransparent way makes it more likely that the information gets lost than communicating in a simple, straight-forward manner. While one can observe this phenomenon in every aspect of daily life, it particularly occurs in universities, where complicated sentences and long reference chains are used constantly. Here, not only the contents of the study programs are difficult for many students to understand, but also the application processes that enable them to enroll in the first place.

We from TUMANYwords had the goal to make the application process at TUM easier to follow and used the bachelor program Mathematics as a case study. During our time at TUMJA, we developed a mock-up website featuring content personalization, simplified language and transparent navigation that directly leads applicants to the documents and deadlines relevant for their application. We also compared the website to the current TUM application information site in a two-stage usability test with schools in Germany and Brazil.

The resulting study aimed to enhance the user experience, as well as simplify the information available on the TUM websites regarding the application process. We identified that the current layout makes a successful completion of an application more difficult and often leads to misinterpretations of requirements. Our mock-up website led to improvements in completion speed of a simulated application at TUM and higher test scores in a standardized usability questionnaire. These findings evidence the importance of a comprehensive structured content display on informative websites. They also underline that for optimal user comprehension there must be a balance between information reduction and oversimplification.

Eventually, our mock-up website proves to be an alternative to the current website with enhanced user-friendliness and efficiency for prospective students at TUM.

If you want to learn more, have a look at our research report here.

• Euridice Pinheiro Vieira Harke (Biochemistry)
• Veronika Hofmann (Mathematics in Science and Engineering)
• Inés Velasco Martínez (Aerospace)
• Peter Ridilla (Informatics)
• Ziwei Wang (Biochemistry)