EduKab Case Study

Case Study

EduKAB

Client: EduKAB

Background:
EduKAB partnered with a group of student counselors to develop a data-driven college matching tool. The platform allowed counselors to enter student details and receive insights into a student’s statistical likelihood of acceptance at specific colleges, while also comparing those results against the average acceptance odds. The goal was to provide counselors and students with greater confidence and clarity during the college selection process.

The Challenge

The college admission process has become more complex than ever. It now requires careful coordination between the student, parents, counselor, and the college itself. With the rise of the Common Application, the volume of applications has surged, and admissions to prestigious schools alone increased by an estimated 7% last year.

Counselors must consider a wide range of variables that make each student unique—and ensure that students understand these factors as well. Successfully matching a student to the right college is critical to their application success. Yet, with growing complexity, counselors face increasing challenges in both managing student expectations and navigating the broad knowledge required to guide them effectively.

My Role

I engaged with EduKAB as a freelance UX & UI design consultant. My responsibilities included gathering insights from target users, collaborating with stakeholders and product leads, driving the UX design process, and conducting usability studies to validate proposed solutions.

Approach

Collected input from counselors and students to understand needs and pain points
Mapped the proposed information architecture and key user journeys
Partnered with leads to align on business goals and shape the product direction
Defined the end-to-end experience, ensuring clarity and usability
Designed the interface, iterated through prototypes, and validated with users

Research

Gathering Insights

Understanding the Users
The product was designed to target two primary personas:
1. High School Counselors
2. High School Students applying for college

User Interviews
Working closely with the Project Manager, I conducted interviews with 10 counselors to better understand their roles, motivations, and pain points with the existing process.

Through these counselors, we also gained access to 20 students currently navigating the application process, allowing us to capture their perspectives, challenges, and expectations.

Gathering Existing Documentation
The first step was to develop a deep understanding of the current process and begin mapping both pain points and opportunities. Creating a draft journey map proved essential for visualizing the entire experience and aligning all stakeholders on a shared perspective.

Strategy

What Does Success Looks Like

Mapping the Desired Experience
Together with the counselors and the Project Manager, I began mapping the current journey to identify key opportunities for improvement and potential pain points to avoid. This process revealed several blind spots in the existing flow and confirmed the need to innovate.

We had a clear vision
We established a clear vision for the product:
1. For Counselors — Provide an intuitive, efficient web tool to help manage the college application process and make better-informed recommendations for students.
2. For Students — Create a platform to track college applications and evaluate their chances of acceptance.
3. For Administrators — Offer a simple tool to manage counselor–student relationships and associated data.

Feature Mapping
From there, we mapped features against user needs and pain points uncovered during research. The initial focus was placed on the Counselor persona, as they were central to the first phase of the rollout. However, features for students and administrators were also captured at this stage to inform long-term planning.

A series of alignment and prioritization sessions helped refine these ideas and shape the initial product roadmap.

Scoping the MVP and Defining the Stories
I worked to prioritize and negotiate features using the Objective Value Chain framework, keeping multiple release phases in mind. From there, I began shaping a release strategy, mapping each planned feature against the KPIs and success metrics we had defined. This ensured that every design effort directly supported measurable business and user outcomes.

Design

Designing & testing

Initial Wireframes
We created multiple variations for the key steps of the flow, organizing the design phase around the three main personas:
1. Counselors
2. Administrators
3. Students

Our initial focus was on defining and exploring the most critical features for Counselors and Administrators. Below are a few sample wireframes highlighting key functionality designed for the Administrator persona.

High-Fidelity Mockups
After designing the core features and validating them with the internal team, I translated the wireframes into high-fidelity screens with polished interface elements and visual design.

The goal was to build an interactive prototype that could be tested with target users, providing realistic feedback on usability and overall experience. Below are a few examples of the final mockups.

Prototyping & Testing
Prototypes proved to be the most effective way to communicate and validate the design. They allowed us to test the application repeatedly with target users, gather realistic feedback, and refine the experience before moving into development.

Usability Studies
Validating the design was absolutely critical. The process unfolded in two phases:
1. Stylist validation — First, I collaborated with Stylists to review and refine the proposed interaction model.
2. Customer testing — Once Stylists were confident in the approach, I recruited six customers from their networks to test both the interaction model and the overall experience.
____

Results
1. 100% of participants were able to successfully complete the customization flow.
2. All six expressed interest in using an online tool to design shirts—preferring it over scheduling an appointment with a Stylist for this task.

Results

Next Steps

Moving into Development

1. The team successfully demoed the prototype to multiple investors, securing additional funding for the project.
2. Development is nearing completion of the first release, with several high schools already expressing strong interest in adopting the tool.
3. Stakeholders were highly satisfied with the final product, and we plan to re-engage post-launch to support adoption and future enhancements.

Case Study

EduKAB

Research

Strategy

Design

Results

The Challenge

My Role

Case Studies

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