EduFind
Winter 2023
EduFind is an online website based application that offers easy access to finding colleges and universities for students and parents. The typical user is either students between 18-21 or parents between 42-55. EduFind’s goal is to make finding the right college as easy and fun as possible and to reduce stress in users.
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This project showcases the development of a workflow and steps taken throughout the applications creation, including conducting interviews, paper and digital wireframing, low and high-fidelity prototyping, conducting usability studies, accounting for accessibility and iterating on designs and responsive design.
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Problems
1 / Beginning
Finding the right college or university can be difficult and is highly stressful for students and parents due to overwhelming options and confusing researching methods.
2 / Interaction
Ineffective websites make it difficult to learn more about schools and provide little information that is relevant to the user, leading to frustration and confusion.
3 / Information
Online websites for finding schools don’t provide helpful links to schools or further information about what it's like going there.
Solutions
Design a app that allows students and parents to easily find colleges that fit their preferences in a way that is easy and intuitive, offering a less stressful and more enjoyable experience. We can do this by offering additional important information and minimize obstacles while maximizing important information for users.
Concept Sketches
Creating an application with the right balance of important information without being overwhelming was a main goal.
User Personas
User personas were created to empathize with potential users and to further understand possible issues with the product. Goals and frustrations were created and used as targets for development to create a more accessible and inclusive application.
User Journey
User journeys were created to further understand and empathize with potential users on the struggles involved with the process of using a product. Further realizations were made about possible improvements and what should be avoided if possible.
Low Fidelity Wireframes
Final Development
Conclusions
1 / Impact
Users have shared that the design is largely easy to use and would help them achieve their goals of finding schools.
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"I wish I would've had something like this when I was looking for schools, it would've made things much easier for me.”
2 / Learning
I learned that small design changes that aren’t even necessarily content changes can make a world of difference. This included the importance of font layout and hierarchy as well as white space.
3 / Future
Conduct follow up usability testing to iron out any persisting design issues, add additional screens and features based on user input and need. Make further changes to the map page based upon usability findings to make it optimally useful for users.