College Action Program

Guiding the future through an unorganized path

Project Synopsis

  • Client

    The mission of College Action Program is to support college students from college application to graduation. Historically, we have focused on the college application process – helping students to document and track actionable steps towards college admissions. We are working on expanding our services to incorporate the support of college retention – providing resources and actionable steps to help students throughout their college years, all the way through to graduation.

    Owner: Lauren Mills

  • Tools & Methods

    Tools:

    • FIGMA

    • Otter.ai

    • Notion

    Methods:

    • User Interviews

    • Survey

    • Affinity Map

    • Journey Map

    • User Flow

    • Competitive Analysis

    • Comparative Analysis

    • Heuristics Analysis

    • Plus/Delta Chart

    • Design System

    • Wireframing

    • Prototyping

    • Usability Testing

  • Team

    Israel Casas

    Andie Davis

    Laura Lopez

  • Role

    UX Designer

    Design Lead

    Project Manager

  • Timeframe

    3 Week Sprint

  • Project Type

    Client Project

20% of high school students who have been accepted into college do not make it to their first day of class.

 

The Research

 

  • 8 Total User Interviews

  • The main two trends we found in our affinity map were that students often felt there was a lack of information to complete each step, and also found that having guidance and help throughout the process was very beneficial.

 

  • We condensed our users to one persona named Sidney the Student to put a face on our ideal client throughout the process.

  • According to our surveys and interviews, we found trends that most students struggle with time management and task management, and they need help staying on track.

  • Out of our 21 students, the majority used a reminders app and a calendar. We implemented all of the tools our users use as well as a progress bar that our client requested.

 

  • Students struggled the most with financial aid therefore that will be one flow where we will lesson the friction

 

The Problem:

  • Users need guidance and ample information throughout the college enrollment process so that they can have a smooth transition from high school to the first day of college.

 

The Help the Students Need (Solution): 

  • We believe that if we design a motivational task completion app by applying a visual status of progress, an error prevention system, and accessible resources, then we are likely to see a 10% increase in students who attend college because there are students who do not make it to their first day.

The Design

 
 

Design Inspiration: Canvas Student Portal

  • I chose this design inspiration, so that students will have a familiar format when entering their college career.

 

  • Wireframing our design from onboarding, dashboard, and informational sections.

  • Dashboard is where the inspiration is implemented.

 

Progress Bar

  • A progress bar at the top of the page is included to show overall progress.

  • The section blocks transition to orange once it is completed.

Informational Steps

  • Each section has an informational video and steps needed in order to complete each section.

  • The mentor button is used when a user needs assistance.

Ample Information

  • Each step has ample information on how to complete a section of the enrollment process.

Help & Guidance

  • An online mentor is there for assistance if a user is having trouble understanding the informational video or steps.

 

Agenda

Calendar & Reminders

  • We included the calendar feature because that is the tool our users used the most.

  • Once an event is set on the calendar…. the app will send off a notification as a reminder that it is approaching.

  • Each event can be shown on the agenda as well.

Finals Week! Testing Results

  • Additional Feature

    Create a functional “Plus” button so that the user can add expenses/scholarships onto their lists on the app.

  • Universal Icons

    Gather more data to decide whether to use an "i" symbol or an arrow on each information step. We want to let the user know that if they press this redirection symbol it will take them to more information.

  • Automation Tasks

    Once a section is completed, automate the “Check” symbol on the checkbox so that there is no unnecessary user interaction (back and forth clicking).

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