Redesigning a University Admission App

1 ~ Background

“Dek-DTCAS” is a university admission app launched in 2016, now over 7 years old., it struggles with a high churn rate. The team acknowledges that the outdated UI no longer meets user needs, driving the decision to undertake a redesign.

2 ~ Know the insights

Insights Analysis

We conducted research through conversation mining across various platforms like facebook, Twitter and do a stakeholder interviews with the Content team, who directly engage with users.

Behavior

Users who download this application do so in preparation ahead of time (for example, downloading it starting from Grade 10, two years before entering the exam).

Motivation

They prefer to read articles or content related to application processes, entrance exam criteria, and Q&A sections. They tend to rely more on information from Dek-D rather than directly from the Council of University Presidents of Thailand aka ทปอ. (as the Content team has already summarized the information for them)

Pain Point

People already have a particular faculty or university in mind. However, when following content from Dek-D, there is no specific categorization indicating which content belongs to which faculty or university (they are all mixed together). This makes it necessary for them to wait or stumble upon the content by chance in order to read about their intended faculty or university.

3 ~ Design

Concept

After gaining user insights, we created wireframes to summarize the concepts and discuss them with stakeholders. While maintaining the same overall flow of the app, we made the following enhancements:

Designed an engaging homepage

that functions as a news feed, providing users with easy access to read content.

Redesigned the Information Architecture (IA)

by deemphasizing less frequently used content, as identified by analytics, and replacing it with more relevant and engaging content.

Highlighted user-preferred content,

making it more accessible on the homepage, with clear categorization into articles, videos, shorts, and infographics.

Mood and Tone

Due to the nature of the app being a news feed with daily updates, we have explored other apps that present news feeds to see their mood and tone. This is to give us an idea of how the app's theme would appear after the redesign.

Information Architecture

We have summarized the overall information architecture to be used for display and shared it for grooming with our stakeholders.

Designing for implementation

Currently, the new “เด็กดี TCAS” app is now live on both iOS and Android platforms.

Android: Play store

iOS: Apple Store

4 ~ What I Learned

• As this was my first time leading the design process, I had the opportunity to practice communicating with stakeholders and engineers. It reinforced the understanding that effective communication is a core part of the design process.

• By the time this app was launched, my internship had already ended. Some aspects of the final app differed from the initial design, leading me to reflect on the importance of thoughtful handoffs that consider the needs of the next designer in line