Streamlining portfolio creation, management & sharing process for students.
Overview
About
Student portfolio generator was a client project sponsored by Groto as a part of my final semester graduation thesis.
Responsibility
I was responsible for designing the interface for all elements within portfolio generator ecosystem based on research and objectives. In this project I collaborated with a senior designer, developer and a project manager.
Timeline
The duration for the design & research phase of this project was 22 - 24 weeks including the feedback cycles from the client and internal revisions.
About Client
EdTerra is one of India’s leading student educational travel company. They partner with various schools across the globe to create educational tours for students incorporating overall learning and skill development through multiple media projects.
Context
EdTerra's Student Portfolio Generator enables students to effectively showcase their work and talents globally. This tool creates a unique digital presence for students, enhancing their college applications & providing new opportunities.
Challenge
In today's educational landscape, there's often an overemphasis on academic performance within the curriculum, leaving little room for students to explore and document their diverse talents and achievements. This narrow focus can inadvertently neglect the unique strengths and passions of students that extend beyond traditional education.
Key Objectives
Increasing Subscriptions
EdTerra's main aim is to increase their active school subscriptions through digital offerings and grow participation in their education tour programs.
Embracing uniqueness
Another objective was to provide students with a flexible platform to showcase their work in an unique and personalized manner.
Streamlining the process
Providing a single platform which streamlines the portfolio creation, management and sharing process in an easy & intuitive manner for the students.
Creating Impact
The portfolio should be impactful and help the students to apply, network and seek valuable opportunities.
Initial Research
During the Initial research we were trying to understand the different sectors related to the product and what are the key business goals which EdTerra wanted to achieve through it. Then we did a quick research on existing products in the similar domain to find out insights and how are they providing value to users.
Competitor's Analysis
Key Insights
Rising trends in overseas education
In the recent past there has been a rising trends of students pursuing overseas education making them a relevant audience.
Adaptation to digital learning
Post covid digital learning products and technology have been widely adopted by many schools & universities to enhance student experience.
Skill development through travel
Skill development through travel is also becoming popular in schools for gaining exposure, cultural exchanges and multiple language learning programs.
Lack of personalized offering
The existing products in the market are generic and cater to very specific audience, example blogs for writers, galleries for photographers etc.
User Research
Following extensive market research and thorough competitor analysis, our focus shifted towards understanding students as a distinct user group. We recognized the importance of tailoring our product or service to meet their specific needs and deliver value across various use cases.
Key Insights
Importance of tertiary users
Understanding the needs and interests of tertiary users such as parents, schools, and universities would also greatly impact the adoption of this product.
Need for multiple portfolios
Students who are confused between different fields might need multiple portfolios to apply at specific colleges.
Head start for students
Providing a head-start to motivate students to initiate the first step when they start creating their portfolio.
No one shoe fits all
The diverse user needs should be catered with customization, flexibility to show/ hide work and personalization.
Brainstorming
After gathering the major problem areas and user needs, we started brainstorming on features and solutions to create a win - win situation for all the stakeholders. This step involved rigorous iterations in the layout, structure and flow of the portfolio generator. The aim was to keep it simple for students, yet detailed and impactful for the viewers.
Final Designs
After fixing the wireframes and structure for the web-app we started with the final screens. The look & feel of the portfolio was kept friendly, colorful and quirky while the student & admin dashboard were kept minimal and not too loud. These screens were later prototyped and tested with real users for feedback.
Retrospective
Learnings
This project has helped me understand how important communication is in a team and with stakeholders. It also showed me that the design process isn't always linear and can be adjusted. Overall, it gave me a better understanding of the industry, so I can tackle future projects with more detail and realism.
Next steps
Post testing the Student Portfolio Generator is currently in the development stage, and EdTerra is gearing up to launch the beta version shortly.
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