Nottingham Trent University

What Nottingham Trent University needed

NTU aspires to become the most digitally sophisticated university in the UK by 2025.

To achieve this ambitious goal, they engaged us to conduct extensive research among its student body. This research aimed to gain a deep understanding of students' pain points and expectations.

Through this research initiative, we successfully identified opportunities to address these pain points, aligning them with NTU's core competencies and technical infrastructure. This strategic alignment ensures the future-proofing of NTU's capabilities and helps them deliver against their ambitious objectives.

Moreover, our approach emphasises the importance of introducing innovations and technologies that can evolve in response to changing needs and circumstances, thus fostering ongoing progress.

How we delivered

Our approach involved conducting desk research and using a combination of quantitative and qualitative user research techniques. Specifically, we conducted 9 workshops with undergraduates, further education students, and apprentices. Additionally, we conducted 10 one-to-one student interviews and a survey with undergraduate students.

The outcome of these research activities was the creation of experience maps that include user journeys, pain points, and opportunities. These findings were used to prioritise actions to be taken in the implementation phase.

The experience maps were created to be easily editable by the team at NTU, so they could be updated to reflect future insights. So far, over 25 opportunities have been identified. Some projects are already underway and can benefit from the additional insight the research provides. Other opportunities look at fresh, innovative solutions to student pain points.

We've formed a strong productive partnership and have created a roadmap to the solutions which aligns with NTU’s 2025 ambition of increased sophistication.

Find out more about our work within Higher Education here.