SUMMARY
- Designed of a series of features that build towards a single user need
- Redefined the solution by understanding the true pain point of the user
- Increase in engagement on core monetised pages
WHO ARE BRIDGEU?
BridgeU is an all-in-one university and careers guidance platform designed for international schools. BridgeU enables students to explore international universities and empowers them to make more informed decisions. BridgeU's core users are students, school staff, and universities.
The need
Global international school students want to understand if they are a good fit for a university anywhere in the world.
The situation
Within the sector the concept of university matching specifically reach, match and safety bucketing is well known, however advisors tend to distrust the source of data and find that students see this as a guaranteed entry when in fact there are multiple personal factors that can play a part in the acceptance of a student.
Post new student app release considerations
- New student experience does not yet have any 'university matching' concept
- This is one of the top feedback items both advisors and students have reported that they felt missing from the new student app
- 'University matching' was a core feature in BridgeU, and has been mentioned as a core differentiator / selling point in the past
BridgeU had a feature called ‘the matcher’ which when grades of the student were entered it bucketed universities and courses into the three categories. It was standalone concept but coupled with a confused search pattern.
Problems with the old matcher
- It only took into consideration some countries, which did not suit the needs of a worldwide audience
- Data restrictions meant it was getting more complicated to match students in a data-driven way
- It had complex tech debt
"The reach/match/safety tool was useful, however there were some challenges with students only seeing universities show up in one bucket (safety for example) and taking that as fact. The counsellors didn't know how accurate this was." Feedback
Rather than trying to build the same feature, we went back to the original student need ‘Am I a good fit for this university?’ to see if there were other ways we could provide solutions.
Student needs
- Understand my chances at a university/course based on my academic performance
- Understand what grades or test scores may be required to be accepted at a university or course
- Find universities and courses I am likely to be accepted at based on my grades and/or test scores, and find those that may be less likely and more of a reach for me
- Explore universities options when I am unsure what/where I want to study
Commercial needs
- Increase student engagement by meeting student needs
- Increase advisor satisfaction by supporting university guidance
- Increase partner profile views discovery through partner prioritisation, where relevant
Considerations
Data availability is a significant consideration, all countries differ in the amount of public accessed data on university requirements and acceptance rates.
Discovery
The team had done some previous research work and tested this with a variety of students as part of a wider vision piece
- Students liked understanding why they were a good match above just knowing the bucket range
- Students understood the initial categories (selective, less selective)
- Students understood the CTA to add grades, the post-grades categories (likely, unlikely) as an indicator for their decision making process
- Students tend to be at different phases of their research so should cater for early discovery as well as those further down the funnel
Ideation
With our data scientist and engineering team we worked on several concepts that answered how might we help students understand chances based on their academic performance;
Users who have not added grades - students who are in their early discovery phase
User who has added grades - students in later discovery phase
The key shift was to make this based on reliable data sources and inform students of key facts. Once the student had inputted their grades we wanted to make their chances visibly clear.
Problem - we had no way for students to add grades or scores in the new student product
A side project was undertaken in order for students to add their grades and scores so that the wider academic fit feature was possible. This allowed students to add 3 types of internationally recognised grading system to the platform (GPA, IB and A-Levels) alongside the US specific SAT and ACT scores.
Wireframes
The intricacies of different grading systems and admission processes meant there were several versions of each feature that needed to be considered to suit US and UK needs.
- It was decided to show the filter for all users to encourage adding grades and pushing towards key markets
- We had to consult the legal team due to the conversion of grades and changes were made as a result
- Academic criteria was added to course lists as users can land on this page within flows missing vital informal
Outcomes
The features were delivered in slices these were prioritised due to complexity, reach and need. United States and United Kingdom were the first releases due to being key business markets, the reliability of data and the proportion of students who attend universities in these countries.
EARLY RESULTS
These features worked towards helping the student need to understand if a university was within their range giving them the tools and data insights to have conversations with advisors and parents on viable options. This in turn helped them to build a balanced list of potential universities across reach, match and safety options.
Additionally there was a significant improvement in engagement with US profiles (below Hotjar snapshots of before and after feature release) following the addition of US academic criteria and related UI changes. This was a huge improvement for our US partners and engaging with our audience helping to understand the student intent and potential conversion to those universities meeting the business need.
EARLY FEEDBACK
"‘Love the academic fit that's coming. I have plenty of students with unrealistic expectations, so this will be very helpful for them and their parents’
‘Academic fit is very exciting’
‘Academic fit is very exciting’