Scholar App — UX case study

Sector: Education

My Role: Product Designer & Researcher

Tools: Figma, Pen and Paper, and Miro

Project Time: 2 months

Assisting students and parents in locating schools that meet their needs

Scholar is an educational platform tailored for students looking to find a college, or university or who are still indecisive on what course to take in uni. The app allows students to organize their entire university search on one platform.

Problem

Education is important in the lives of individuals as it, illuminates a person’s mind and thinking, aids in the development of human personality, and allows them to plan for jobs or continue their studies after graduating from university.
The majority of parents and students have gone through the process of finding a school at some point in their lives. However, there are challenges, such as a lack of adequate information about the school, its culture, or fees online, or information that is scattered all over the web with no way of finding it.

Goal

• To allows, students and parents to find schools that fit their requirements easily
• To help students find answers to their questions about the institution, the admission process, and whether it is the right cultural fit for them.

Research

My hypothesis going into the user research was that people simply wanted a place to look for schools and manage their entire experience from their phones.
I spoke with eight students and parents who have previously searched for schools or are now doing so. I learned that parents wanted to be able to ask specific questions about topics that concerned their children such as the curriculum without having to visit the school physically, whereas students were more concerned with finding the right program for them, as well as current information and extracurricular activities available in the school district.

Question:

What are the challenges you face while searching for a school online?

Answer:

. Finding the right information. Once, I saw a program I liked on a platform and when I visited the school’s website, I discovered the program had been discontinued years ago.

Analysis

During this stage in the UX process, I drew insights from data collected to create the user persona and user flow.

SWOT Analysis

Strength

• Speed up the application process.
• Advertise schools to customers who are likely to convert.

Weaknesses

• Schools not updating their information
• Not available offline

Opportunities

• More students are looking for schools as a result of the pandemic. From the previous year, the number of college applicants increased by 13%, and the total number of applications submitted increased by 22%.

Threats

• New entrants in the market
• Global competition

Style Guide

Onboarding Screens

To reinforce the message and create an educational atmosphere, the onboarding pages are in the form of illustrations.

Select Country

Because certain nations are known for providing high-quality education, we gave users the option of selecting the country they want to visit so that they may receive recommendations as soon as they sign up. If the user wants to explore different nations, they can modify this on the app.

Home Page

To cover educational information in a visual manner, the Scholar app homepage uses a picture section display mode. The rating of the schools is also available on the page to assist them in making informed decisions.

Search Page

The search page enables students to choose from a range of disciplines. Pictures of the disciplines are used to help make a connection with the text and to clarify the information offered in a layout. Additionally, users can search for a school according to a program or tuition.

View Schools

Users are presented with a screen while viewing each school that tells them about the school, gives photographs, paperwork documents required to apply for a certain school, relevant news, and reviews to help them make informed decisions.

User Profile

Users can save schools that they have previously visited or that they are interested in so that they can access them at any time.

Testing

A high-fidelity prototype was constructed to evaluate the user interface, and unmoderated remote usability testing was undertaken to allow users to use the app on their own, complete tasks autonomously, and obtain true user feedback.