The Ask

College Aid Pro’s mission is focused on ending the student debt crisis. Most prominently known for providing software that helps financial advisors deliver college planning strategies to their clients, CAP envisioned a direct to customer platform. As a result, the ask focused on reimagining the existing B2B tool in order to directly empower students to plan, compare and access a college education without debt.

The Result

The MyCap tool helps student’s pay less for college by providing them with a plan as well as a robust set of tools that maximize the amount of money available for their education.

Key features of the platform include:

• An Optimized Onboarding Flow that helps families get a realistic picture of their current college finances.

• An Advanced Search feature that compares US colleges based on which offer the most financial aid and scholarships.

• The ability to Create Your Own List of preferred schools, track their deadlines, admission requirements, application status, and more.

The Process

Discovery & Definition

The work started with a kick-off meeting and an experience audit of the existing platform. Once the audit was complete, a discovery and co-creation session with key stakeholders was conducted. During the virtual workshop, additional requirements were gathered, ideal users were defined, and ideas began to emerge about how the user experience could be optimized. From there, user flows were defined and mid-definition wireframes were created.

Design & Delivery

Mobile First Approach

By taking a mobile first approach, the design system and visual language began to take shape. First, the onboarding flow was streamlined, reducing the cognitive load for a user by making the process clear and intuitive. This was followed the expansion of the existing visual language and the development of a modular school card system that adapted the information displayed based on where in the college shopping journey a specific school is in.

The design process maintained an agile line of communication between CAP stakeholders, project management and the development team, allowing for a successful design handoff and a timely MVP roll out.