Introduction
Nanyang Technological University (NTU) Singapore began a digital transformation to streamline its in-house systems and enhance the user experience. By integrating Usetiful’s digital adoption platform (DAP), NTU successfully reduced training costs, minimized support dependency, and improved system usability for its community.
The Challenge
NTU sought to improve user adoption across several in-house systems. Users, who often interacted with these systems infrequently and under tight deadlines, required one-to-one support. Additionally, the diverse information delivered through these systems highlighted the need for a solution that simplifies processes and provides results more efficiently.
The Solution
Usetiful was deployed across critical systems to enhance user adoption:
Enhanced Student Intranet: Announcement banners, guided tours, and tooltips were implemented to enhance communication, simplify navigation, and consolidate fragmented information into one user-friendly interface.
Image 1: A guided tour displayed on the NTU Student Intranet.
Electronic Facility Booking System: Product tours simplified the complex booking process for NTU's extensive inventory of rooms, significantly reducing user confusion and support requests.
Ethics Review Management Portal: Usetiful provided a functional, dynamic in-system guide, successfully resolving user unfamiliarity with required steps and information placement, thereby reducing overall time-to-approval.
Research Funding Management System: Product tours and tooltips provided contextual guidance for complex workflows such as proposal submissions and grant management, improving user efficiency and reducing reliance on external support.
NTU Omnibus (Shuttle Bus App): In-app tutorials were embedded to guide users in navigating and adopting these essential campus applications, driving feature adoption and overall engagement.
Image 2: Screenshot of in-app tutorials on the NTU Omnibus.
The Outcomes
Implementing Usetiful guidance led to tangible benefits:
Decreased Support Costs: The interactive tours reduced the volume of recurrent user queries, allowing the support team to rotate saved time into other areas. For the Enhanced Student Intranet alone, approximately 145 hours were saved in support tickets over one month.
Enhanced Productivity: Usetiful functioned as a dynamic in-system guide across modules, enabling employees and researchers who interact with systems infrequently to swiftly navigate and execute tasks without extensive external guidance, leading to productivity gains.
Reduced Training Needs: By providing dynamic, in-app contextual support, Usetiful slashed the time and resources traditionally allocated to training initiatives, replacing extensive training days and documents with a "learn by doing" approach.
Reduced System Complexity: Real-time contextual in-app help from tooltips, product tours, and the Assistant simplified learning, making systems more user-friendly and intuitive.
Why Usetiful Was a Success at NTU
Usetiful's ease and speed of deployment made it an ideal solution, allowing the university to address challenges quickly and realize an immediate return on investment. By replacing training with intuitive, in-app product tours and empowering users with real-time assistance, NTU significantly reduced friction and boosted engagement.
Key Takeaways
Digital adoption tools like Usetiful provide a quick return on investment by reducing the costs of training and one-to-one support.
In-app guidance helps both new and existing users by providing contextual assistance.
Improving user experience requires mapping the user journey and prioritizing a frictionless onboarding and learning experience.
About Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
A research-intensive public university, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) has 35,000 undergraduate and postgraduate students in the Business, Computing & Data Science, Engineering, Humanities, Arts, & Social Sciences, Medicine, Science, and Graduate colleges.
NTU is also home to world-renowned autonomous institutes – the National Institute of Education, S Rajaratnam School of International Studies and Singapore Centre for Environmental Life Sciences Engineering – and various leading research centres such as the Earth Observatory of Singapore, Nanyang Environment & Water Research Institute and Energy Research Institute @ NTU (ERI@N).
Under the NTU Smart Campus vision, the University harnesses the power of digital technology and tech-enabled solutions to support better learning and living experiences, the discovery of new knowledge, and the sustainability of resources.
Ranked amongst the world’s top universities, the University’s main campus is also frequently listed among the world’s most beautiful. Known for its sustainability, NTU has achieved 100% Green Mark Platinum certification for all its eligible building projects. Apart from its main campus, NTU also has a medical campus in Novena, Singapore’s healthcare district.
For more information, visit www.ntu.edu.sg