UWE: Mapping the Student Journey to Drive Transformation

From insight to action — shaping a future-ready student experience

The University of the West of England (UWE) approached us with a clear objective: to better understand the student experience from the ground up. They needed a strategic, insight-led view of current challenges — and a compelling vision for the future.

Understanding the Student Experience

We began by mapping the real, lived student journey — using a Think / Feel / Do framework to uncover pain points, gaps and friction moments across the student lifecycle. This involved close collaboration with students and staff, gathering insights across academic, social and support-related experiences.

Designing for What Comes Next

Using these insights, we developed a set of accurate student personas that reflected key user groups and scenarios. With these in hand, we re-ran the journey mapping exercises, imagining a future-state experience that would better meet expectations and ambitions — across both physical and digital environments.

The resulting outputs gave UWE a clear blueprint to support the development of a new, university-wide Student Experience Transformation Programme.

Results & Strategic Impact

• 🎯 Deep insight into current pain points and opportunity areas

• 👩‍🎓 Empathetic, actionable personas to guide internal planning

• 🔭 A future journey model aligned to real student expectations

• 📋 A strong, user-led brief to inform a major transformation initiative