Believe in Me - College Resource App
OVERVIEW
Believe in Me is a non profit youth empowerment organization providing scholarships, mentorship, and essential support to young people facing poverty, trauma, isolation, and systemic barriers. Believe in Me recently showcased a scholarship for high school students, but no one applied due to lack of awareness. To resolve this problem, they built a native college and scholarship web and mobile app for under-resourced students called One College Hub.
PROBLEM SPACE
Navigating college admissions has become increasingly more complex for today's high school students. From skyrocketing tuition costs to complex application processes, the pathway to college is more challenging than ever before. But for students from marginalized backgrounds, the obstacles are even greater.
Under-resourced students are 11 times less likely than their peers to earn a college degree by age 24 due to massive systemic burdens and hardships.
SOLUTION
One College Hub is a web and mobile app that empowers, supports, and informs the journey to college through tailored and engaging college resource discovery. Students can swiftly curate a personalized suite of scholarship programs, find the best matches, and easily manage their college applications all in one place.
MY ROLE
I delivered end-to-end Product Design in collaboration with the Design Team, CEO, and Product Manager. I implemented Human Centered Design frameworks to enable 0-1 successful product delivery aligned to the needs of today's students.
IMPACT
Final designs showcased a 100% task success rate for college resource allocation and a 97% subjective user approval rating for learnability. 90% of users approved of the gamification design and 100% of users found the app central to finding scholarships and tailored college matches.
TOOLS
Paper, Pencil, Figma, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, Jira, Confluence, Gemeni AI, Otter AI
TIMELINE
6 Months
Capturing Student Narratives
RESEARCH AND DISCOVERY
I led my team through qualitative research in order to capture authentic student experiences that would lead to an inclusive app design. We conducted 15, 1:1 semi-structured interviews with students identifying as first generational college graduates, students from low income backgrounds, and students from immigrant families.
I performed discovery workshops to gain deep insights into the experiences of our core users. Four clear themes emerged:
Deep Economic Hardship- Students are not able to pay for ANY amount of college including the "hidden costs" of admissions.
Complex Admission Processes- Students must contend with unfamiliar terms (like the FAFSA), demanding application requirements, and competing deadlines while often lacking support from teachers and counselors.
Emotional Turmoil- Students face crippling stress, feelings of shame, and feeling like they have to be the adult when navigating complex, unfamiliar processes on their own.
Research Data Insights
Centering Student Experiences
JOURNEY MAP
I synthesized key research into an actionable persona and user journey to help our team to visualize and connect user-centered data insights into all phases of design.
MEET ELLA- HIGH SCHOOL JUNIOR
Ella hopes to be the first in her family to graduate college. She dreams of becoming a doctor and is in search of full financial support to help her achieve her goals.
How might we empower, inform, and support students like Ella on the challenging pathway to college admission and career success?
Ella's Journey
Synthesizing Design Solutions
UNDERSTANDING STAKEHOLDER VISION
Our leadership team envisioned a heavily gamified app experience where students engage with exciting challenges, go on adventure quests, and unlock levels while navigating college admissions.
User research indicates that today's under resourced students are already grappling with the challenges of life. They yearn for simple, informative design that bolsters their chances of college admission.
DELIVERING USER CENTERED GAMIFICATION
I advocated for the implementation of the right kind of gamification. I led collaborative mood boarding sessions to visually capture and symbolize easy and motivating gamification design such as whimsical AI guides, avatars, personal leaderboards, friendly status feedback, sorting, and internal currency systems.
Mood Board - Gamification
Crafting Scalable App Structure
INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE / USER FLOW
I synthesized key features into a solid content map and user task flow for onboarding, college search, AI interaction, and favorites page exploration. I performed additional research and synthesized content into a scalable information architecture to showcase a college search flow with focused skills based features.
Visualizing UI Patterns
FROM SKETCHES TO WIREFRAMES
I sketched out potential UI patterns and then built mid-fidelity wireframes detailing the college search experience to present to my team for feedback. I synthesized user research insights with stakeholder vision into clear solutions across core flows. Solutions include friendly gamification elements that support search and application efforts, AI integration for unfamiliar terms, and a student centered college search dashboard.
Sketches
Mid-fidelity Wireframes with Card Iterations
Putting Designs to the Test
USABILITY TESTING
I recruited groups of high school students for quick usability testing in order to gain feedback on ease of task completion, overall subjective user experience, AI utility, and gamification preferences.
All users appreciated the ease of onboarding and the personalized college search process.
90% of users tested wanted MORE gamification including fantasy avatars, additional badges, and an expansive currency system.
Full Fidelity Prototyping
I incorporated user feedback into interactive full fidelity prototypes that feature the following solutions:
Product Integration
I redesigned Believe in Me's homepage to facilitate web app integration while also increasing customer conversions for donations and voluteer needs.
Frictionless Onboarding-
I crafted simple modal sequencing requesting only key data to inform tailored college matches.
Motivating the Experience-
I incorporated positive system feedback, progress indication, leader boards, and a badge gallery to encourage key task completion that would lead to easy resource allocation for students
Personalizing the College Search Flow-
I built detailed card components featuring tags, drop down menus, and interaction design to place students at the center of the search experience.
Simplified Dashboard Design-
I delivered a visually dynamic and user centric dashboard featuring resource curation, tracking, and application management.
College Support AI Integration-
I fashioned an AI chat bot search feature through scaffolded conversation design and digital avatar illustration that simplifies complex terms and processes.
Main Onboarding Screens- Features progress indication and avatar galleries
Main Dashboard with AI Chat
Favorites and College Search Pages
Core Pages- Features Home Page to App Main Screens
Mobile View- Click to Start
Take Aways
Our team found success through creative problem solving and design collaboration. We utilized Agile frameworks, competitive research, and ongoing ideation to navigate the challenge of balancing stakeholder needs with user needs. As we synthesized research insights into solutions, the scope of our product changed dramatically due to rapid expansion of product features.
We managed this expansion by leaning into the tenants of human centered design and team collaboration. This product is still in development due to fundraising efforts and new feature integrations.