Liberally Yours

Student run startup that gives prospective liberal arts college students an online platform to learn more about potential schools.

Click on each image for a full view, as well as a description of UX design choices.

The Goal

Create UX mockups for the client’s new (and first) website.

The Team

Bridge Strategy consultants Claire Yang and Audrey Mock. Under the supervision of project manager Kathryn Cross.

UX Best Practices

We began by reviewing websites with similar goals and identified three key sites: Niche, Naviance, and College Confidential. We performed an analysis of key features on all three sites, as well as features that set the three sites apart from their less successful counterparts. We narrowed down the results of our review to the following:

Ability to filter searches based on specific criteria
- Highly customizable search function to allow students to find schools based on criteria pertaining to prospective students' academic, social, and personal interests.
Data-based recommendations
- Provide users with school recommendations based on the schools that users with similar interests have viewed and/or to which they have applied.
Opportunities to talk with current students
- Allow users to receive direct advice from current students about their respective universities.

User Research

To best understand the client's ideal user, we conducted interviews with prospective college students (at our respective high schools) with a particular interest in liberal arts
schools. We also interviewed first-year students at Wellesley College, who recently went through the college application process.. Our interviews centered around the question, "as a prospective college student, what do/did you hope to learn from a college blog/forum?" Common answers included the following:

What does x school look for in an applicant?
How does x school compare to y school?
What scholarships are available for x school, and how do I apply for them?
Where does x school's student body fall on the competitive vs. collaborative and "work hard" vs "play hard" spectrums?