edYOUcate

Higher Education School Searching Web App

edYOUcate is a web platform for students to make the search for higher education schools easier. They are able to search, apply, compare and more. Since the process is so overwhelming, keeping all of the documentation and information that is gathered in one place is very helpful.

Master's Degree Capstone Project | Spring 2023

Picture this:

You are a student looking for a school to go to. You have 23, 654 schools to choose from all over the world and a major to choose on top of that. While doing research to make your decision you have to bounce around to a bunch of different tools and websites and you're taking your notes in yet another place.

This leads us to the problem to tackle.

High school students are feeling extremely overwhelmed by the task of choosing where to go for their higher education due to the abundance of schools and not knowing what career path to choose.

A good education is very important to those applying and is a fundamental step in their career. Since the decision of where to go is so important, it is imperative that the process is as simple and stress free as possible.

I then started to brainstorm.

What product could I create to help the most people possible?

Capstone

Web app to allow students looking for higher education schools to narrow down their search easier. They would enter some information about what they are looking for and the app would populate a "top 5 best schools" for the user.

Target Audience

Anyone looking to further their education.

Bachelor's
Master's
Doctorate

Possible Features

Search
Apply
Schedule tour
Compare schools
Favorite schools
Email updates

I also wanted to look into the macro forces

that would have an effect on my product. Some key forces were

Demographic: niche group- students and parents of students

Economic: a lot cant afford tuition and bootcamps are less expensive

Socio-Cultural: applicant rate has been dropping significantly, a decline in confidence in value of higher education, and people starting businesses instead of going to school

With my idea in mind,

it was time for user research. I conducted user interviews and sent out a survey to find out how students are currently going through the process, what their pain points are and what they would want in a product like the one I was going to be creating. I was able to get 12 responses in total between interviews and the survey and was able to gather a lot of helpful insight to move forward for the design.

of participants

found their schools from online research and word of mouth

of participants

responded Yes or Maybe when asked if they would use an app like this

of participants

say an app like this would help them in their search

Users also suggested some features they wanted to see in a product like this:

Filters
- Location
- Remote, hybrid
- Major
Financial Information
"Favorite" Schools
- Use this to suggest other schools
Student success rate
Pro/con list/Notes
Compare schools
Accessibility rating
Student life/pictures
Student reviews
Course lists
School events
Contact information

Now that I had a solid lead into a product,

I conducted a competitive analysis to see how I could stand out against the market. I found four main competitors: Niche, Cappex, CollegeBoard and myFUTURE.

What I noticed about all of these tools is that they focused on one part of the process and students would have to go to another place to get more information.

They gave me inspiration for features that I wanted to incorporate and how to do it in the most successful way possible.

Next was to sketch

my ideas. Having so many ideas, it was important to put them on paper to work out some of the details of how I wanted to organize some pages and visualize how I wanted some features to work.

It was now time to start on my lo-fi wireframes.

I included features to make it as easy and stress free to go through the process. This includes a quiz to match the user with a list of top 5 schools, a search feature, the ability to apply right on the school page, scheduling a tour, comparing schools and more.

Lo-fi Walkthrough

During round one

of usability testing, I received very positive feedback. Participants felt that the product would make the process easier. They did want to see more information on some icons and they thought that the compare schools/notes features were difficult to find. When asked to rate their experience on a scale of 1 to 5, I was given a 4.3/5.

After the test was done, I asked my participants to vote on their favorite name and color scheme for the product going into hi-fi wireframes.

Hi-fi Walkthrough

During round two

of usability testing, I received very positive feedback again. My participants from round one had voted on the name edYOUcate and the color scheme "Fun and Profesh." Participants appreciated being able to do everything in one place and would use the produc. They did want to be able to choose more than one option to answer some quiz questions, and were trying to click on the "search" page header instead of the icon. When asked to rate their experience on a scale of 1 to 5, I was given a 4/5.

Hi-fi 2 Walkthrough

During round three

of usability testing, I received very positive feedback for the third time in a row. Participants really enjoyed the color scheme, clean design and organization. They did want to see more information in some categories when comparing schools. When asked to rate their experience on a scale of 1 to 5, I was given a 4.5/5.