Corsair Connect will be receiving an update focused on accessibility and improved features.

Visualization of the upcoming Corsair Connect redesign shown to students in an email sent by Santa Monica College on May 10.

Corsair Connect, the website used by Santa Monica College (SMC) students to enroll in classes and pay fees, is receiving a complete top-to-bottom redesign since its creation 17 years ago. The update is scheduled to release on May 18, and aims to prioritize the user experience and make the layout more intuitive for students and faculty.

The updated interface will also have new features not seen in the website’s current layout. When students open the page, they will be greeted with a countdown to summer, an interface where they can check their enrollment and education plan, and other features useful to students.

One of these new features will be called Success Steps. “Our main goal with that is to essentially give students an idea of where they are in terms of applying for financial aid, their placement, and access to MyEdPlan,” said Liz Martinez, a User Experience (UX) Designer and Interaction Experience Design (IXD) student. “You can log in now and really figure your way around the site, and not be so lost and confused.”

Redesigning Corsair Connect was a collaborative project two years in the making between IXD students, designers, researchers, and different cross-functional teams. Martinez said that IXD students also worked with Financial Aid and the Admissions department. The collaboration included two years of prior research and development by the UX design students. It was a massive project with lots of challenges along the way.

“The original research was big,” said IXD student Dave Giammarco. “When it actually started being designed, there were big changes along the way having to do with each department telling you ‘this is what we want,’ and then ‘how can you make it work?’ It had to do with how to structure things and present things in a way that was the most accessible.”

The teams took notice of the fact that it has been a long time since Corsair Connect received an update. The website needed to be updated to modern standards.

“It was disorganized and feeling a little cluttered,” said Christina Strok, an IXD student and UX designer. “We’ve been able to organize it, it makes it much easier to find information and a little bit more intuitive, so you can recognize where certain places are within Corsair Connect.”

In the final stages of development, there was a private webinar with SMC staff in attendance to get feedback prior to the official launch on May 18. Strok said that the feedback from all the staff was very positive.

“I’m really excited to hear feedback from the actual students now,” said Strok. “They did interviews with students comparing where Corsair Connect is now and overviewing as a class where they think it should go.”

It is currently unknown if this will be the last redesign for a long time or if Corsair Connect will be consistently updated in the near future.

“For right now, I think the updates and the redesign that we’re doing, I think they’re trying to set it up so it won’t have to be as updated for a little bit,” said Strok. “Definitely not 17 years.”

Students interested in seeing the new design before it premieres can attend one of the IX department’s webinars on Monday, May 15 at 1 p.m. and on Tuesday, May 16 at 10 a.m, with links sent to their school email.

Featured