Destination YOUniversity- A college consulting service that finds your dream college

My Role:
Lead UX DesignerMid-Fidelity,
Hi- Fidelity Prototyping

Duration: 1 Year

Team:
3 UX Designers
UX Researcher

Introduction
Destination YOUniversity, founded by Dr. Cynthia Colón, specializes in guiding first-generation students through the college admissions process, with a strong focus on crafting compelling essays that lead to successful acceptances. A college admissions expert, author, and advocate, Dr. Colón draws from her own experience as a first-generation student to provide personalized support for students and families from low-income and minority backgrounds, helping them navigate the complexities of college admissions with confidence and clarity.

The Problem:

  • Dr. Cynthia Colón’s website failed to effectively guide users toward purchasing her services
  • Users were left confused and unsure of where to navigate or how to get started.
  • The use of color and text overwhelmed users, contributing to a poor user experience.

The Goal:

  • A website that will help drive her business
  • Create a roadmap that leads users to her services
  • Wants each users experience to be personalized

The Solution:

  • Designed a simplified and modern user interface to enhance usability
  • Highlighted key features prominently on the homepage for easy access to essential information.
  • Reduced the need for users to navigate deeply into the site to find what they need.
Research & Discovery

Applying for colleges can be hard

In the U.S., the average student-to-counselor ratio is about 455 students to 1 counselor, which makes it really tough for counselors to give personalized support—especially when it comes to college counseling.

That is where someone like Dr. Colon comes in.

Overview of current site

We conducted a quick heuristic analysis on Dr. Colóns current website and noted not

Validating our Assumptions

5 Interviews with parents of high school children revealed that stress was caused by college admissions.
The biggest theme we discovered was around how parents had to turn elsewhere for help besides the school for college admissions help.
01
“All I had was the internet to help me with college admissions”
-Father of High school Student
02
“A lack of knowledge was the biggest difficulty. And I felt like those around me didn’t know either.”
-Mother of High school Student
03
“At this point I saw my child constantly failing and I needed to pay someone to help her ”
-Mother of College Student

First Click Test

I conducted a first-click test on the current site to better understand how users interact with the layout and navigation, especially since Dr. C mentioned that users often feel lost and frustrated. By identifying the areas where users are either confused or unable to locate important content, I was able to pinpoint specific navigation issues that could be causing drop-offs.

They were asked, “Where would you click to learn more information about Dr. Colons college admissions services?"

Speaking with our stakeholder

After interviewing with our stakeholder I was able to gain a deeper insight on the main issues of her current site.

Dr. C mentioned that users feel lost on her site, and that they tend to drop off due to frustration. Which was a losing opportunity for clients to purchase one of her services. The navigation of the site was too complex, low on conversation rates, and that users tend to miss key information or struggle to find what they’re looking for. Dr. C also noted that the site lacked clear calls to action, which made it difficult for visitors to understand the next steps or engage with the services. As a result, the user experience was not only confusing but also hindered the potential for conversions, leaving both clients and the business at a loss.
“I think the difference for me... I'm a college admissions expert, but I'm also parenting coach as well...I'm trying to reach the family that looks like me, who was  first generation.”

Current Navigation

Dr. Colon’s current site map had too many repeating links and unclear language that left users with confusion. After conducting multiple tests for the internal navigation the data showed that users were confused with the current terminology that dr. C was using. Dr. C mentioned that her main goal was to attract users to purchase one of her services, and with terminology users cant understand that hinders that process.

New Navigation

After a couple of card sorting exercises I was able to reorganize the content that made better sense to users.
Ideate

Key word is personalization

Dr. C wanted to emphasize the personalized nature of each student’s college admissions journey. She expressed a desire for her users to have the option to take a quiz that would help them determine which service would be the best fit for their needs. Below is the user flow for the personalized quiz.

Minimal Step Process in purchasing one of Dr. C’s Services

Key Improvements

Key word is personalization

Dr. C wanted to emphasize the personalized nature of each student’s college admissions journey. She expressed a desire for her users to have the option to take a quiz that would help them determine which service would be the best fit for their needs. Below is the user flow for the personalized quiz.

Project Takeaways

This was my first project leading a UX team and conducting meetings, which allowed me to develop leadership skills, enhance collaboration, and effectively communicate design decisions. Dr. C already had an established network of faculty through her site, giving us access to her Google Analytics data. Having real user data from an existing site was invaluable for my team, helping us uncover the missing elements in her user experience and providing a strong foundation for data-driven design decisions.

Looking ahead, I would love the opportunity to work with Dr. C again. After gaining more experience in the industry, I’ve learned so much, and I’m excited to apply my new knowledge to future iterations of her site.