Executive Summary
The Cappex Universal College Application streamlined the admissions process with its one-application approach, simplifying the journey for students, counselors, and admissions officers. The user-friendly interface and strategic features significantly improved application management and reduced college application complexity.
Strategic partnerships with educational institutions, including representation from heads of admissions at major universities, bolstered Cappex's platform credibility and ensured a broad acceptance of the digital application. This inclusive strategy was furthered by a proprietary data-cleanliness engine that guaranteed the accuracy and authenticity of student data, addressing the challenges of age restrictions and privacy concerns.
Lastly, College Greenlight expanded the platform's impact, particularly for underserved communities, by providing insights into scholarships and colleges, aiding students in making informed decisions about their education future.
Outcome: Launch of a universal college application platform, simplifying the application process for students and receiving positive feedback from both students and colleges.
Highlights: Significant user base growth from 250,000 to over 1 million during my tenure. Now the platform has over 4 million users, indicating a disruption in the college admission process leading to a greater number of applications for admission offices to review.
Influential Usability Testing Feedback: Usability testing with real students and school counselors provided critical insights that shaped the Cappex platform's evolution. The feedback highlighted the platform's most beneficial features:
• The universal application and essay
• A straightforward user interface indicating incomplete information
• Tools for Counselor Oversight
• A straightforward user interface indicating incomplete information
• Tools for Counselor Oversight
These elements, refined through iterative design and testing, were pivotal in enhancing the user experience and increasing platform adoption, ultimately significantly impacting the platform's functionality and the satisfaction of its users.
Project Information
Role: Sr. User Experience Designer, leading user research and managing a team of designers.
Team: UI Designer, UX Researcher, Web Designer, SVP of Product Management, Sr. Product Manager, Sr. Software Engineer, Sr. Software Engineer, Sr. Data Analyst.
Timeline: 12 weeks of intensive design and development.
Status: Successfully implemented and operational, now evolved into Appily, a comprehensive platform for college choice.
Context
Cause: The complexity of applying to multiple colleges with different requirements.
Environment: Educational, spanning high school students to college admissions offices.
Problem: Cappex sought to increase engagement on its platform compared to its competitors and improve its search functionality.
The Common Application
Coalition Application
Universal College Application
Research
Insights: Emphasized user-centric features such as a one-stop application process and a clear UI to display incomplete sections.
User Flows: Due to the complexity and scale, the user journey was broken into six disciplines:
• Sign-up
• On-boarding
• Adding Colleges
• Application Sections
• Essay Submissions
• Counselor & Letters of recommendation.
• On-boarding
• Adding Colleges
• Application Sections
• Essay Submissions
• Counselor & Letters of recommendation.
Issues: Identified through heuristic evaluation, focusing on workflow and handoff with counselors. Users need a clear indication of responsibility tasks.
Design
Flows: Inspiration for the Cappex Application UI was built on the following: "We are here to build something over time." Organization elements and user focus fields were pulled from popular design tools like Apple's Pages and Adobe Illustrator.
Interactions: The user interface was designed to be clean and straightforward, with tools like a step-by-step application wizard.
Visuals: A complete redesign of the Cappex.com website, including a new sign-up process and information organization.
UI Inspiration - Apple's Pages
Cappex Application UI
Test
Prototypes: Developed low-fidelity prototypes and interactive models, including a digital prototype for review.
User Tests: Conducted to refine the UI based on feedback from students and admissions officers.
MVPs: Developed and implemented features like college cost calculators and scholarship search tools.
Results
Final Designs: Launched a web application enabling over 1 million+ users to apply to over 600 colleges easily.
Outcomes: Increased user engagement, time spent on site by 25%, and a decrease in bounce rate by 10%.
Takeaways
Learnings: Highlighted the importance of empathy, usability, and data integrity in creating a universal application platform.
Reflection: Demonstrated the value of iterative testing and development in refining the product.
Social Proof
Testimonials: Cappex’s inquiry to the application was as high as 47%, with 8.5% of those students going on to enroll and 90% of users discovering at least one new college.
