PROBLEM

The college admissions process leaves students feeling confused, overwhelmed, and excluded.

SOLUTION

The Corsava For Students app streamlines the college admission process by helping students discover their deeper preferences to find colleges where they’ll thrive and graduate.

TARGET USERS

High school students (age 16-18) and their families/support networks

PROCESS

Discover // Define // Ideate // Design

DISCOVER

Research

To begin, I did secondary research on the college admissions process and the current post-education landscape. This defined what is at stake for our users.

Takeaways

Enrollment and graduation rates are dropping and colleges are closing at an unprecedented rate
Colleges are now competing for students and are offering special deals/discounts
Colleges are looking for students that are a good fit, rather than just top achievers (so that the student will stay and graduate)
Students are more open to nontraditional paths than in previous years
On average, college students change their major at least three times – adding to the cost of college
Only 19% of college students graduate in 4 years
Businesses (like Amazon) are developing their own “universities”
Admissions and financial aid are a lengthy and complicated process

Next, I needed to dig deeper into the motivation and feelings of our users. The founder of Corsava is a veteran independent college counselor who has worked with hundreds of students and has deep connections within the industry. I worked with her and our outreach consultant to gather information from counselors, admissions experts, students, and parents to identify key issues and pain points in the admission process.

Takeaways

Many students aren’t getting any college counseling at school
Students feel they have never been asked what they want
Students often feel discouraged as other college admission tools focus on academic scores and statistics
Students already spend a lot of time on homework – the platform can’t feel like homework
Students fear getting stuck with a mountain of college debt and no job
Parents feel overwhelmed and don’t know where to start
Parents are worried about the financial strain of college
High school counselors aren’t necessarily experts on every college; their students tend to go to the same few schools
Counselors want an easy way to get parents and students on the same page, early

DEFINE

Personas

Based on the research, there were several scenarios and needs that varied depending on specific family dynamics and situations. I focused on two users that represented two common scenarios: Danya and Ray.

Danya is a junior in high school. They have taken several college-prep courses and have been visiting and researching colleges with their parents. Danya would prefer to go to a big college but is undecided as to which one to attend. Throughout their early high school years, Danya would see the seniors wearing their chosen college’s clothing. Danya is looking forward to getting into a “good” college and starting the next chapter of their life.
Ray is a senior in high school. They haven't visited any colleges yet and don’t know where to start – but they want to stay close to their friends. Ray’s family has encouraged the idea of attending college but won’t be able to support Ray financially. Ray is overwhelmed by the process of financial aid and doesn't know if they qualify for any scholarships. Ray is looking forward to having fun in college while not being left financially strained.

Design Requirements

The product needs to feel fun and not like homework
The product will provide students with a personalized and customizable experience
The product will be a source of vetted and trustworthy content to help students find their best college fit

ideate

Card Sorting

The college admissions process is lengthy and complicated. I created a map of common topics and categories I found during my research and the ways in which Corsava would address them.

This helped me organize through the content and create the architecture.

Architecture

To prevent information overload, I needed to be very strategic in how to present vast amounts of information to students. From a mindset perspective, I wanted Corsava to feel like a guide, not director. The student would be in the driver’s seat and everything would connect back to their preferences and the lists they build.

User Flows

We wanted students to always be exploring new content, challenging their assumptions, and updating their preferences. One challenge was how to accomplish that without things feeling repetitive. To solve for this, the app reflects the student’s preferences and behaviors – eliminating any extra noise. For example, the view of a specific college is state-specific.

The college is on the student’s list and they have reviewed/rated or visited it
The college is on the student’s list and they have not reviewed/rated or visited it
The college is not on the student’s list but they have reviewed/rated or visited it
The college is not on the student’s list and they have not reviewed/rated or visited it

This case repeats throughout the experience.

Design

Wireframes

Onboarding

My first challenge was to build a new Corsava Card game experience for the app. The new version of the game would need to be successful without the aid of a counselor. To do this, I worked with Corsava’s founder to break the game into smaller tasks and pair related and opposing Corsava Cards (for example, you can’t get a college with both “Small Class Sizes” and “Big Time Athletics”). We also expedited the game by creating a framework and hierarchy for Card categories and simplified interactions.

Home

A goal was to reduce “problem space” and only show personalized and time-sensitive content. The college admissions process is cyclical and the content feed will reflect what students should be thinking about at that particular moment - as it relates to their preferences.

Should students choose to explore more content, they could filter by their cards, colleges, games, activities or jump into new content by using the category tags within the content. As they interacted with new content, that would impact their content feeds.

Cards

Students are encouraged to change their minds and edit their Corsava Card preferences as they explore colleges. Here they can edit their Card preferences, add any Cards they might have skipped during onboarding and explore Corsava Cards that they might have overlooked.

Messages

Students are able to connect their account with their parents/mentors, and school counselors. Here they can share content, messages, and notes with those in their network.

Add

The “Add” feature enables students to quickly record their impressions as they explore colleges. Here they can rate a college, add a note or record their college visit.

Colleges

In “Colleges” students can track and customize their college list to see how colleges match up with their deeper preferences. As they change their Corsava Card preferences, the list of recommended colleges will change.

User Profile

The user can find all of their bookmarks, notes, photos, reviews and visits in their profile.

Next Steps

The project was discontinued prior to completing all of the interactions in the wireframes. If I was able to continue working, I would have conducted additional preliminary testing and continued to iterate and test until the interactions were as streamlined and intuitive as possible.

Personal Takeaways

During our work, I kept thinking about one student that said “This is the first time anyone has asked me what I want.” Not only was I able to help lead and shape a new product but I was able to contribute to something that was going to help young people. Being a millennial myself, it wasn’t hard to empathize with the mindset of an overwhelmed high school student with high hopes and a crippling fear of student debt. There was still a lot of work to be done on Corsava For Students but I am grateful that I got to be there on the ground-floor during it’s creation.