Taking the company’s original pen-and-paper product, my team and I were tasked with designing a digital product to help prepare and organize students applying to college. To do this, our app would address the issues commonly faced by students applying to college, providing them with critical skills and resources to help them shine in their applications.
Through user interviews with students, parents, and college counselors, I determined the pain points and fears of parents and students like preparation, competition, standing out, essay writing, and keeping track of deadlines.
In researching other college planning businesses, I found that most provided only standardized, impersonal services which were insufficient as comprehensive resources, while services offering personalized experiences charge ridiculous premiums.
Throughout our research, we found that there is a severe shortage of guidance counselors to assist with college applications, and as a result students struggle to understand the exact process they face, the deadlines they’ll need to meet, and the criteria that admissions will look for.
Additionally, turning to a private consultant can be incredibly expensive, with some counselors charging over $10,000. High school students are not receiving the support they need from schools, and as competition grows they need more than just good test scores and high GPAs to stand out on college applications.
Focusing on universal accessibility as well as effectiveness, we ideated an all-in-one lesson and preparation app with skill-building experiences, used in conjunction with school counselors, allowing students to learn about the application process at their own pace while providing a space for them to plan their individual application process.
When thinking about our target audience, we knew we wanted to help support students in their discovery and preparation for the application season. This meant we would be designing for high schoolers who needed extra support.
Addressing the concerns from our research, the initial wireframes were designed to guide students through weekly lessons covering important topics for their applications, help them create an application calendar with built-in-reminders, and provide a space for brainstorming and essay practice.
This image carousel shows examples of our early concept sketches, as well as our low-fidelity wireframes which we used as the basis for our final prototype.
Utilizing the colors from the color of the book from the original pen-and-paper business model, we created a color palette. From there, we chose fonts, designed a logo, and created UI elements to make our design system.
Follow along with 12 weekly lessons covering important topics like the common app, finding scholarships, and more. All lessons are self-guided and available in video, audio, and text formats.
Search for any school and add their application deadlines and requirements to your calendar. Additionally, you can read school-specific advice about essays and their unique applications.
All of your application deadlines will automatically populate in the calendar, where you can select specific schools to receive reminders about their approaching deadlines.
Brainstorm ideas for your upcoming essays, practice your writing skills with our weekly writing exercises, and learn about essay writing in the Essays lesson.
We interviewed 31 potential users and showed them each our visual value proposition (VVP) to gauge the effectiveness of our branding and the desirability of our product. We found that the majority of users understood what the product was and believed it would be useful for themselves or someone they knew.
Afterwards, we demonstrated a walkthrough of our prototype mockups to gauge the experience’s desirability and usability. While most expressed desire to personally use our product, we were delighted to see that almost all rated the flow of the experience positively. In addition, many even suggested features they’d like to be added, like personalization, customizability, and integration with existing platforms like Google.
Other solutions in this field leave a lot to be desired. The CommonApp’s app added reminders and curated content for students, but it fails to go beyond the functionality of their desktop application space. Other solutions in this space generally offer limited resources or limited functionality, and a lot of the competition falls short of students’ needs.
Nonetheless, competitors in this field have raised funding, showing us that we are in a viable space and making me confident that our unique features would be desirable in this field. We are the only app that offers guided lessons, deadlines, and reminders all in one place, and this startup idea still holds the potential to disrupt the space.
I'd love to help with your next project and I'm always available for a chat. If you have any questions or you'd like to get in touch, feel free to contact me.
