Fixing Broken Journeys: The UX Audit That Changed Everything

Singapore | Educational Innovation | UX Audit 

It started, as most transformations do, with a problem that had been hiding in plain sight. 

For years, a prominent educational institute in Singapore had been quietly running six different General Offices (GOs) across its campus. Each one handled queries, processed requests, and managed documentation for thousands of students and staff. It was a logistical juggling act, and the balls were starting to drop. 

Students got lost in loops of repeated inquiries. Staff were stuck in a never-ending cycle of printing, verifying, signing, scanning. Everyone felt it: the friction, the fragmentation, the fatigue. 

That’s when the institute reached out to us at User Experience Researchers Pte Ltd (USER), hoping to redesign their internal processes under a single, unified digital umbrella. The goal was ambitious: centralise everything, automate what could be automated, and humanise the rest. 

The UX Audit: Where It All Began 

Our first move wasn’t to build, it was to listen. 

We conducted a full UX audit and launched a Design Thinking Workshop with key stakeholders: GO staff, students, IT leads, and academic decision-makers. This was followed by deep-dive journey mapping sessions where we walked through every interaction, every question asked at a counter, every piece of paper handed over. 

The findings weren’t surprising, but they were eye-opening. 

• Students needed fast, searchable answers to common questions without lining up at a counter. 

• Staff were overwhelmed by repetitive queries and item collection logistics. 

• Document verification processes were slow, manual, and error-prone. 

We saw not just inefficiencies, but missed opportunities to improve the everyday experiences of the people who make education work. 

Building the MVP That Mattered 

Armed with insights, we collaborated closely with the institute’s digital transformation team to design and build an MVP that would do more than just digitise, it would delight. 

The solution focused on three core pillars: 

• Automated replies to FAQs  A smart backend database that could handle student inquiries 24/7, freeing up human agents for more complex issues. 

• Item distribution tracking  A digital collection system for documents, uniforms, and other physical items, ensuring accountability and reducing queue congestion. 

• Secure document verification  An improved scanning and approval flow that cut down manual checks while increasing accuracy. 

We didn’t overdesign. We made it lean. Functional. Focused. The idea was to roll out fast, learn fast, and adapt, a principle at the heart of our UX philosophy. 

The Results: A New Era for General Office Services 

Six previously siloed GOs were brought together under one streamlined platform. Tasks that used to require two to three people now ran automatically in the background. 

• Efficiency soared. Staff were freed from low-impact tasks and could focus on higher-value work. 

• User satisfaction improved. Students spent less time figuring out where to go and more time actually resolving their issues. 

• Verification became smarter. With better digital scanning, official documents were processed faster and with greater accuracy. 

Perhaps the most surprising change wasn’t technical, it was cultural. Staff began to see technology not as a replacement, but as a collaborator. They could do more, with less stress. The broken journeys had been fixed. The GO was no longer a place people dreaded. It became what it was meant to be: a point of support. 

Lessons from the Frontline of Educational UX 

If there’s one thing we’ve learned, it’s this: digital transformation is not about pushing technology onto problems. It’s about redesigning journeys from the inside out. 

This case wasn’t about creating a flashy app or loading up on AI buzzwords. It was about empathy. About understanding that the everyday interactions, getting a form signed, picking up an item, asking “Where do I go for this?”, matter far more than we often give them credit for. 

When you improve those touchpoints, you don’t just streamline processes. You create a better, calmer, more human institution. 

What’s Next? 

This MVP was just the beginning. The Educational Institute is now exploring deeper integrations across departments, from student life to career services, to further unify their campus-wide user experience. 

At USER, we’re continuing our work, helping organisations rethink what’s possible when UX isn’t just about screens, but about systems, people, and purpose. 

Need help designing experiences that actually work?  Let’s fix broken journeys together.  project@user.com.sg | www.user.com.sg 

#BehindUSER #USERInsights #DesignedWithCare  User Experience Researchers Pte Ltd, Singapore