OVERVIEW

Most universities and colleges require applicants to use dated application systems to collect information from the applicant. Those systems are unique and often vary from school to school, which puts the burden upon applicants to manage the complexities.

Camp exists to make the admissions process smarter through the creation of applicant profiles, which work to accelerate the application process.

Applicants can avoid having to manually input information, track their progress, and get notified of the status of their application.

ROLES & DURATION

Lead Product Designer | Kira Talent
User Research, Interaction, Visual design, Prototyping & testing

March - Sep 2018

TEAM

1 Product Designer
1 Product Manager
2 Frontend Engineers
1 Backend Engineer

CLIENT

Problem

The majority of enrolment management systems at higher education institutions are unable to deliver a “smart” admissions experience.

Today’s leading application management systems are were created during the late 1990s and early 2000s with the expressed goal of bringing a paper-based process online. The systems in place today are custom implemented for each institution, mirroring the unique business processes which drive each their admissions cycle.

As a result, data collection and utilization are bound at the per implementation level – prohibiting a system’s ability to deploy modelling or forecasting solutions at scale.

User Research

I conducted a series of meetings with members from admissions teams, administrators, and applicants. My research encompassed -

•  Understanding the application process
•  Roles and responsibilities of members at each level
•  Day to Day tasks that need to be accomplished
•  How is the success of the tasks measured

Insights

After the discovery phase of research was complete, I organized the feedback into two categories.

Applicant Experience

REPETITIVE INQUIRIES

The number of programs applicants apply to can vary between 6-16 – that's a lot of applications meaning applicants can expect to input their data so many time they begin to feel stressed out by it.

TRACKING PROGRESS

Applicants struggle to maintain the requirements of their applications, which can lead to missed deadlines, incorrect entries, and increased levels of stress for the applicant.

Technical Challenges

DIRTY DATA

Not having a standard data model that is shared amongst institutions makes deriving insights from teh data very costly.  

CLOSED SYSTEMS

There's little benefit to schools maintaining a closed system. Some institutions have begun to recognize the benefits of the applicant maintaining an academic profile.

Conceptualization

I started creating the information architecture and low-fi concepts for primary use cases. After having a go-ahead from the Product Manager, developers, and Stakeholders on the mockups, we began to conduct usability tests with the low-fidelity mockups. Once we had confidence in the design, we began digitalizing designs.

Usability Testing

I tested the product at various stages of the project.

• Lo-fi prototypes were tested with the stakeholders weekly to get feedback on the functionality, content, and interactivity of the product.
  
  
• Team Demos - The camp team demoed the progress of the product each week to both update the company and to solicit feedback.

Impact

We introduced some choice clients whom we thought would benefit most from implementing Camp into their process. Although it's qualitative, the feedback has only been positive. The aspect that has resonated most with them is the possibility to predict trends such as applicant yield or something referred to as "fit."

Lastly, Kira Talent investors were very pleased with our progress and our ability to build Camp in just over a quarter. The fresh energy has reinvigorated conversations had with the strategy team. Plans are currently being made to iterate and extend Camps design.

Being Respectful

Education institutions have operated for a very long time. I made it a point not treat them like they were operating incorrectly. That isn't true anyways. What I did do is make it clear that my job is to help them improve their existing processes. The shift in approach resulted in getting a higher quality level of engagement.

Over Communicating

This project involved many different people and I was often in place to have to provide updates on what had happened. I made sure to provide reports to the general company, lead demos, and attend daily sync ups to share context into what I'm focused on. As a result, The team was able to contribute more to what I was working on which improved the design.

Let's Connect

Get in touch for any full-time opportunities, or a friendly hello 
aaronalfred1@gmail.com