Project Review
Beecoming B2B2C Education Platform
Beecoming is a two-way educational technology AI platform that bridges the gap between U.S. institutions and international students. And it is a large project with products not only for student applications but also for school admissions.
There are more than 30+ features and 100+ pages are involved. To have a better understanding, let's explore each essential feature individually in the future. What I've shown blow is just a small fraction of the project. We designed entire systems to complete the recruiting process.
Please follow me and review the whole design process of the student funnel. Please contact me if you are interested in the Student Application platform or the other features involved in the School Recruitment Platform.
Student Application Platform
Type: B2B, AI System
Features I've Designed / Participated:
Pre-UX Strategy
Website1.0 UI/UX Design
Essay Review
Real-time Essay Editing
WeChat App Design
Info Session
Online Meeting Program
Interview Practice Program
Virtual Meeting Program
School News Page
School Recruitment Platform
Type: SaaS, AI System
Things I've Worked On:
Problem Definition & Scoping&Prioritization
Competitor Analysis
User Research
Design System
Platform UX/UI Design
Dashboard Design
UI Style Guide
Prototype
User Testing
Beecoming Website 2.0
Project Review
My Role
In 2021, I designed part of the Beecoming students AI application platform features. This time, I joined the team as an individual product designer to work on the entire recruitment design project. I led the design process and worked with PMs to push the v0.1 product iteration.
Project Review
What I do From 0-1
Interaction design and visual design for product.
Create information architecture.
Partner with PM to define problems, created design strategy and Identify the scope of the entire project with the team.
Designed UX flow and UI and delivered prototypes. Done competitor analysis, user research, managed stakeholders and created the UI component library.
Design Research
Define Problem
International student recruitment to colleges and universities in the U.S. plummeted during the pandemic, dropping 15% in 2020–2021.
Meanwhile, the traditional International recruitment process is frustrating. International students and U.S. institutions spend a lot of time and money on it. They may not achieve the ideal outcome even after several rounds of screening and applications.
The universities and international students have heavily relied on agencies, and the application process lacks transparency, making it hard for them to obtain first-hand knowledge.
International Student Recruitment During 2020 -2021
Traditional Recruiting Spent / year per School
International Students contribute to U.S Economy
Design Research
Define Stakeholders
U.S institutions
Research shows that 20% -30% of schools use admissions recruiting officers or student ambassadors to assist them in the admissions process. Nearly 50% of the schools collaborate with international recruitment firms for help, and other schools have their faculty doing the recruiting. And the need for resources and information is enormous in the process. Unless the information is transferred in time or without misinformation, the school could spend more money while losing core and desirable students.
International Students vs Local Students
Most U.S. students start preparing to apply in their junior or undergraduate year, and each has to apply to at least 5-8 schools and meet the GPA standard and program requirements. They can quickly contact the school to adjust their documents or plans if there is any change. Compared to the local applicants, the preparation of international students is more extended, and they will face the problem of missing information or not having access to firsthand knowledge. The lack of transparency in the admission process also challenges schools to share valuable information and has less control over target audiences.
Design Research
Competitor Analysis
Our team and I spent time studying current similar existing products in the market. We looked at competitors and did analogous studies. Most products have a channel for international recruitment, but that is not their core service. Each product has its unique way of recruiting, and the individual can't use some product demos; therefore, it is difficult for us to find a business model to follow.
By learning about these products features, we can identify more strengths and trends that our product should lead. Also, we invested in the reviews of these products to understand user feedback directly.
Strength
Collegevine by CollegeVine
Clear User Interface
The overview and status of the various universities in the United States are very detailed. The information in each unit is relatively straightforward. There is no redundant content. The list is clear and user can quickly obtain information.
Quick Response Access
70% of schools have an admission officer who can be contacted. Although they do not get a direct response, they can send emails. For users, the platform provides a channel for contact.
Synchronized Simulator
Chancing Simulator-the school and profile options are synchronized. After modifying the profile, user can immediately see the changes in the application success rate, which is very convenient.
Design Research
Insights
01 Straight-forward Workflow
Simplifying the management process is necessary due to the increased amount of data. A straightforward workflow is like a step-by-step guide for users to follow.
02 Optimize User Experience
Keep the user interface clean and neat. To reduce the information overload for each page and to visualize the appropriate data.
03 Building Trust
Use Features, Color, Language, privacy, and even development quality to build trust.
Design Research
How traditional international recruitment works
1. Students are costly to convert, and because of the pandemic, many flights got banned, and the quarantine policy keeps changing, causing schools more money and time.
2. Relies heavily on Agent. The large porcelain firewall blocks most of the typical recruitment methods, Ads, SEO, Marketing, GMAT/TOFEL, ETS name buys, etc. As a result, many U.S. schools can only get valuable information from agencies or hire consultants to assist. The schools are in a passive position during the admissions process.
3. Unable to target specific students. As mentioned above, schools are easily disconnected because they cannot communicate fully with students, and the agency is controlling the student's profile which is often unavailable or costly.
Design Research
Our Goal
1) All-in-one online SAAS platform. The student data we collected from the Beecoming Student Application Platform allows us to offer the school a large pool of high-caliber students from whom to enroll.
2) Increase transparency. To revolutionize the traditional international admissions process, we must provide students with sufficient personal information to enable schools to select their discerning students within the platform.
3) Connect with the student directly. Provide the user with tools to engage students and move them down the recruitment funnel.
How can we approach the goal?
Design Challenge
The Turning Point - Six Stages Overlap
To learn more about the international students' recruiting system, I circle back to the team and ask for more help. Our PM and I talked about more research resources. Side by side to compare students' application process and schools recruiting process. We start to reach the student's application process and the school recruiting process side by side and found that the six stages overlap, which means they can communicate in those stages. The six stages are the turning point when transparency becomes true in the recruiting eco system.
And I stepped back from all the screens they shared and generated the primary recruitment process flow. And discuss with our PM to specify the content and CTA for each step. And finally, create the funnel phase journey map.
UX Design
Site Map
The student funnel is under the program function. It's a small but primary fraction of the whole project.
UX Design
Wireframe
According to the funnel phase journey map, several key actions need to approach in the wireframe.
User will be able to see the pool of the students in each stages.
User will be able to send notification to students.
User will be able to schedule sessions.
User will be able to connect with students directly.
User will be able to use advanced filter against students.
UI Design
Style Guide & Components Library
After several wireframe critiques, we started to design the UI pages. I created the style guide and followed the rules to generate the UI design. And for the table format, with more flexibilities, all three key features are narrowed to the right side, and each column can be sorted from the top and dragged to adjust orders by user’s preferences.
UX Principle
My Design Methodology
Completeness
In real cases, no one can guarantee that during the design process, everyone will follow the plan/sitemap/wireframe they created in the first place step by step. New problems always arise, so we have to set actionable constraints or scope, address a new trial, and solve it until we meet our goal.
Set Priority
Always prioritize a satisfactory solution over an optimal solution, especially regarding B2B products. Not adding unnecessary information makes it difficult for users to find precise details. User intent is essential, so always add a proper heading, segments, bullet points, and highlights.
UI Consistency
Consistency is important for UI design to make elements/components uniform — having them look and behave the same way. That’s why creating a style guide is significant work to do in the first place.
Clear User Interface
Always create an easy-to-use interface. Never make users overthink their next steps. It helps their interaction with the product less frustrating, consequently reaching their goals faster.
Next Step
It doesn't end here
Our new design helps to convert thirty new prospects, around 150-300 users, within a half year while maintaining the current users. And we are separate from our competitors, standing out from the market.
01 Essential Features
Improve the design of the current table format, and reopen searching features. (I have designed these features already. But we didn’t have much data back then, so we decided to hide it first. Once the database gets more extensive, we will reopen the feature.)
02 Additional Features
Along with the expanding database, the current design is not enough for the increasing number of cases. We have to consider the different scenarios, such as how users manage more than two or three school years students profile; how to manage the students who are on the waiting list, and should user reconsider the student in the new school year;
03 Expand scope and more development
Except for the current recruitment system, we are planning to offer other services, like helping schools manage their current students and open courses, all in one platform.
