A new experience applying to programs and schools

Redesign user experience and interface for Terra Dotta

The Basics

Terra Dotta is a platform that many schools use for applications, including applications to academic school programs as well as study abroad programs.

Role

UX Designer

Team

Rachel Qian

Sanae Wilson

Project Length

1 week

Context

In 10 days, redesign for Terra Dotta, a study abroad application software company, to elevate its business by providing better user experience.

Background & Goals

Brand challenge

Terra Dotta is facing more and more competitors like Via, TRM, and Horizons are emerging with better products and user experience in the relatively small market.

Goal

-Attract more new customers

-Increase customer retention

Signal

-Increased usage

-Increased returning customers

-Increased application completion rate

-Increased customer schools

-Less negative feedbacks

Metrics

Research

Stakeholders

College student
Administrator
Director of a specific program
Other faculty

Personas

High school
students

Administrators

User journey

By identifying our target user's journey with Terra Dotta, we discovered insights and their pain points to improve in our redesign.

phases

overall steps

detail steps and actions

Pain points and insights

Pain points

Many students, especially high school students, find it hard to maintain good time management on application process.
Some students claim that they find mistakes in their applications after submitting them but can not do anything anymore.
When students are confused about certain part of the application, they have to write emails and wait for responses.

One administrator is usually responsible for several programs. It is often times hard to keep track of all applications.
They find it time-consuming to put up new materials for new programs.
Administrators often times answer similar questions from students over and over again.

Design Opportunities

How might we make tracking the application process more accessible and intuitive for high school students?

How might we simplify the process of managing the system as well as shorten the time spent?

How might we reduce potential mistakes that high school students make before submitting the application?

How might we facilitate the communication between administrator and other parties?

Solution Features

Process tracking
Parent involvement
Guidance during application
Mobile interface to make good use of spare time

Prioritized and categorized information
FAQ database

Value proposition

Student

Administrator

Design proposals & development

Information Architecture

Low fidelity wireframes & testing

Paper mock-ups to find out user's feedback on the re-designed flow

User testing round 1 feedbacks

Confusion about the app/web page
Users prefer swiping motion
More clear iteration on chatbot flow is needed(especially when a message is forwarded to administrators
Users like the FAQ feature, but are confused about the buttons

Mid fidelity wireframes & testing

Mock-ups made with whimsical and Figma that demonstrate more detailed flow and user interface

High school student interface

Administrator interface

User testing round 2 feedbacks

Full-screen mode on mobile works well because it helps to concentrate on the task
FAQ creation needs more flexibility to make it more efficient
How much do students want to share with their parents?
Re-think the final submission flow

MVP testing with real user interactions

To gather real data from user samples to analyze whether the new design reached the "metrics" we set in the beginning.

Users interact with our MVP according to their habits and real application process.

Make interactive MVP in Thunkable

and send out to a group of potential users.

We receive real-time data in Airtable spreadsheet. Data is then used to see whether our new design achieved the metrics and whether we should further improve the design.

MVP feedbacks

Users tend to click more into the tab placed on the top of the list.
Users tend to be reluctant to upload files the first time they open the application.
Placing completeness on top of the screen helps to remind the user to keep working on the applications.
Showing completeness of each section and checking the ones that are finished helps users to continue working on the applications.

Design system

Young
Travel
Explore

Moodboard

The vibrant feeling of the interface is targeting our new stakeholders-high school students. At the same time, high contrast colors help prioritize and organize information and tasks.

Color

Typography

Button states

Iconography

Final Design

1-1 Step by step navigation and transition

By improving the mobile version of the Terra Dotta experience, we provide high school students the opportunity to make use of their spare time.

Also, as shown in the example on the right, they can easily keep track of application process on the dashboard to make them feel more in control of the process and know where they are in the application.

Value creation

Better time management
The directional flow helps speed up the process.
"One-question-at-a-time" mode avoids information overflow.

Dashboard

Dashboard shows the progress of each category.

Automatically jump to the next card once an answer is selected.

1-2 New essay editing feature

High school students will be able to convert existing files and edit the text file on their mobile phones with the new Terra Dotta system.

The new essay editor only provides essential editing tools and has an auto-save feature to make sure student update is always saved.

Value creation

Better time management (allows students to better utilize their spare time to think about and work on the essays)

download-macbook-png-hd-free-transparent

Parent/student collaboration mode is unique to the high school student version.

Parents can track the process, make payments and give permission for final submission.

Feature flow

2 Parent/student collaboration mode

Avoid potential mistakes by having parents double-check materials before submitting.
Speed up the process by loop parents into the payment section.

Value creation

Register collaboration mode

Final submission permission

3-1 Chatbot for student

Students can enter the chatbot anytime during the application process to get help regarding different sections of the application.

Chatbot is able to answer basic questions and initiate the conversation smartly depending on where the student is in the application.

Value creation

Speed up the process of getting questions answered so that they can continue with their applications ASAP. (efficiency)
No need to jump into email and send questions. (efficiency)

Auto-reply from chatbot

Forward questions

to administrators

Chatbot is a trainable assistant for administrators.

By adding frequent questions from students and other parties into the FAQ database, the administrator can have the chatbot reply to similar questions for him.

Chatbot is the feature that builds up the long-term connection between the administrators and the software to make it irreplaceable.