UniCompass: Helping High School Students Find the Right College Major

My Role

UX Researcher, UI Designer

Team

5 research members (Include Design), 1 supervisor

Skills

User Research, Wireframe + Prototyping, Usability Test, UI iteration

Duration

Sep, 2022 - Mar, 2023 (7 months)

Summary

Goal

This project aims to support high school students in Taiwan’s high-pressure, exam-oriented educational environment, by offering support and resources to help them uncover their interests and potential career paths

Solutions

College Matching - Finding the appropriate major and comparing universities and departments
Acquiring Experience - Obtaining valuable information from university students' personal experiences
E-Portfolio Planning - Receiving advice on building Academic Portfolios

Contribution

Led the user research and participated in the overall development, conducted 4 user interviews and 3 usability tests
Collaborated closely with team members to execute 5 key research methods and main design processes
Conducted UI and Design System development, ensuring design consistency throughout the product

Impact

The System Usability Scale (SUS) increased by 17.2%, and task completion reached 100% with a 20% error reduction
User satisfaction improved by 35%, with a CSAT score of 4.3 and a SUS score of 78.9
This project was accepted by ACM CHI, the most renowned in the field of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) conference, and invited to present the projects at the event

Click the button to access the full version of the publication

Publication

Problem

Goal

User Research

Design Process

Solution

Validate

Takeaways

Problem

High school students in Taiwan fail to explore their aspirations, leading them to follow the blueprint.

Problem 1

In Taiwan, societal pressures and the emphasis on pursuing high-earning prestigious majors often overshadow students' personal interests and passions, while the intense pressure of exams further limits opportunities for meaningful exploration.

Problem 1

Problem 2

Although the Academic Portfolio System (APS) is designed to encourage this exploration, the initial implementation makes students unsure of how to prepare.

Problem 2

Although the Academic Portfolio System (APS) is designed to encourage this exploration, the initial implementation makes students unsure of how to prepare.

Problem 2

Although the Academic Portfolio System (APS) is designed to encourage this exploration, the initial implementation makes students unsure of how to prepare.

Problem 2

Although the Academic Portfolio System (APS) is designed to encourage this exploration, the initial implementation makes students unsure of how to prepare.

Goal

Create a platform to help high school students navigate college majors and ensure access to inclusive, fair, and high-quality education.

User Research

The image featured at the top of the about us page #1

Interview

To better understand the challenges high school students face when selecting career paths and majors, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 7 university students.

Data Analysis

By using the affinity diagram to analyze the transcripts of these interviews, we identified several key findings.

Key Findings

We recruited 11 participants to test our prototypes. The information gained from interviewing the participants after testing provided us with valuable insights, leading us to expand our design requirements.

1. Lack of a platform to efficiently learn about and compare schools and majors

Students face challenges in finding a user-friendly platform to compare universities and departments, making the research process cumbersome and leading to uninformed decisions.

1. Lack of a platform to efficiently learn about and compare schools and majors

Students face challenges in finding a user-friendly platform to compare universities and departments, making the research process cumbersome and leading to uninformed decisions.

1. Lack of a platform to efficiently learn about and compare schools and majors

Students face challenges in finding a user-friendly platform to compare universities and departments, making the research process cumbersome and leading to uninformed decisions.

1. Lack of a platform to efficiently learn about and compare schools and majors

Students face challenges in finding a user-friendly platform to compare universities and departments, making the research process cumbersome and leading to uninformed decisions.

“I think although the official website of each school may have information, but suppose I have 10 different departments to understand, I have to go to 10 different websites to find the correct information. This is very troublesome.”

P02

2. Lack of Diversity and the Sharing of Experiences from Predecessors.

High school students lack opportunities to interact with university seniors, leading to limited understanding of specific departments and discrepancies between expectations and reality upon entering university.

2. Lack of Diversity and the Sharing of Experiences from Predecessors.

“The seniors are not easy to get to know, but those who do are the greatest source of information.”

P06

Persona

We developed a behavioral spectrum based on students' considerations, information-gathering methods, and understanding of college departments. We then used it to match participants and create personas.

Click the link to access the behavioral spectrum

Design Process

Design Requirement

Based on the characteristics and patterns of our personas, we have defined two key requirements for the product.

The system should help high school students efficiently compare the differences between various universities and departments and identify the more suitable one.

Requirement 1

The system should help high school students efficiently compare the differences between various universities and departments and identify the more suitable one.

Requirement 1

The system should help high school students efficiently compare the differences between various universities and departments and identify the more suitable one.

Requirement 1

The system should help high school students efficiently compare the differences between various universities and departments and identify the more suitable one.

Requirement 1

The system should assist high school students in learning about universities and departments from a variety of personal experiences shared by current / former university students.

Requirement 2

The system should assist high school students in learning about universities and departments from a variety of personal experiences shared by current / former university students.

Requirement 2

The system should assist high school students in learning about universities and departments from a variety of personal experiences shared by current / former university students.

Requirement 2

The system should assist high school students in learning about universities and departments from a variety of personal experiences shared by current / former university students.

Requirement 2

Sketching Ideation

We conducted sketching ideation based on key design requirements, proposing 1-3 concepts variation for each. After comparing and discussing these concepts, we created prototypes and refined them based on feedback from each iteration.

Additional Insight Discovery

The system should provide advice and guidance on building Academic Portfolios.

Requirement 3

The system should provide advice and guidance on building Academic Portfolios.

Requirement 3

The system should provide advice and guidance on building Academic Portfolios.

Requirement 3

The system should provide advice and guidance on building Academic Portfolios.

Requirement 3

"Preparing for the GSAT while also preparing my academic portfolio didn't allow me to focus on one thing at a time."

U06

At the beginning, when I didn’t know what to prepare or what to include, it was very frustrating, and I questioned why I had to do it.

U04

Solution

College Matching: Find the Right College Major and Compare Information

Matching Result

The matching results page shows the best college majors based on the student's interests, recommends suitable options, and lets users save favorites for easy reference.

Department Comparison Form

The table lets users compare programs from different universities side by side, with a dropdown menu to customize the comparison criteria.

Acquiring Experience: Obtain Information and Ask Questions

Forum

The Forum allows users to share information, ask questions, engage with comments and emoji reactions, and efficiently search for relevant content.

Chatroom

The messaging enables users to connect with college students and ask specific, personal questions not covered in forums.

E-Portfolio Planning: Get Directions and Plan Schedules

Suggestions

The Suggestions page offers advice for creating Academic Portfolio files, providing clear directions that users can explore further to enhance their portfolio.

Schedule

The Schedule feature allows users to efficiently plan their time, explore university departments, and organize their Academic Programs with to-do lists and deadline reminders.

Validate

We recruited 7 high school and university students to evaluate the platform. Participants completed six tasks, including exploring departments, assessing suitability, using the Forum and Chatroom, and planning their academic portfolios.

17.2%

Improved System Usability Scale
(From 67.3 to 78.9)

20%

Error Reduction
(From 80% to 100% success rate)

35%

Improved User Satisfaction
（From 3.9 to 4.3 of CSAT）

100%

All six tasks were completed successfully, with a 100% success rate

78.9

The System Usability Scale (SUS) score of 78.9 indicates the system is user-friendly and easy to navigate.

Testing Check

Task 1: Directly querying information on specific departments.

Task 2: Exploring and comparing on the website to find the department that is suitable for yourself.

Task 3: Viewing the opinions and evaluations of college seniors for the department.

Task 4: Directly communicating with college seniors in a specific department to inquire about department-related information.

Task 5: Inquiring about how to prepare an Academic Portfolio for a specific department.

Task 6: Planning and scheduling for the Academic Portfolio.

Need for improvement

Improve Efficiency

Forum page - Optimize forum tags and add more categories to help users find information faster.

Schedule page - Provide more preset suggestions to help users quickly plan academic activities and reduce time spent on self-planning.

Enhance Information Integrity

College matching - Offer more background information and explanations for test results, helping users understand their choices and boosting trust in their decisions.

Forum page - Improve the diversity of forum content by adding more categories beyond just academies and schools, ensuring users get more comprehensive information.

Takeaways

Leadership, User Research and Empathy

In this project, the biggest challenge was how to effectively help students choose and plan their majors using a digital platform within the existing educational system. Since I am somewhat distant from the current education system, it was crucial to deepen my understanding of its operations and challenges. I did this by conducting preliminary interviews with students and analyzing secondary data.

During multiple usability tests of Unicompass, we discovered that the “Academic Portfolio” system was underdeveloped within our application. This led me to improve this section of the system and gain a better understanding of its significance for students. The main takeaway for me from this process is the importance of “iterating the product multiple times to validate assumptions.”