DSE Calculator

Live/Learn, Yahoo! Hong Kong
Hong Kong students faces significant challenges in planning their academic future due to the overwhelming number of university course options with varying entry requirements, and complex scoring schemes across institutions. The current process of researching and comparing courses is time-consuming, stressful, and emotionally draining, leading to decision fatigue and anxiety.

My Role

I responsible for designing a native app for iOS & Android, as well as a web app. I was the only designer on this project so I was involved in everything from user research, conduct interview, mock up and prototyping all the way to delivering final designs ready for development. In addition, I worked alongside a Devleoper, UX copywriter and Product Managers.

The Challenegs

Our goal is to create a tool that can assist DSE student to identifying university courses where they have the highest chances of acceptance, narrowing their research scope based on personal interests and DSE results, enabling a more straightforward, informed approach to decision-making.
The Approach

Before take on the shoes

Before diving into user research, it's crucial to understand how JUPAS (Joint University Programmes Admissions System) works to gain better insight into the applicants' perspective.
‍
JUPAS is a unified system for Hong Kong students to apply for undergraduate programmes. It is highly competitive, with admission rates varying significantly across programmes and institutions. Careful planning and strategic selection are key to maximizing admission chances to desired programs.

There have three critical phases in the JUPAS process it is decision making moment.
Phase 1:
Initial Application:
Students submit their JUPAS applications online.
Phase 2:
Pre-Exam Update
A period for updating programme choices before the HKDSE exams.
Phase 3:
Post-Results Update
Students have 24 hours to re-arrange their choices base on their exam result.
My next step was to investigated the common challenges students face in selecting university courses by interviewing 8 former and current DSE students. The research goals were to understand
‍
1) How do students conduct their research and selecting university courses and what are their frustrations?
‍
2) How do they prepare for and handle unexpected results?
‍
3) What emotions do they experience during the process, and how do they manage these feelings?

The Discovery

The research findings revealed some unexpected insights into the primary challenges faced by students during the university course selection process. Contrary to initial assumptions, the main sources of frustration were not primarily related to the time-intensive nature of research or information overload. Instead, the data highlighted more nuanced and complex issues across three main categories:
Decision making challenge: ‍
  • Uncertainty about future career paths
  • Pressure to choose prestigious programs
  • Balancing interest and admission probability
Emotional challenge:
  • Emotional Stress and Decision Fatigue
  • Stress causes procrastination and verse vise
  • Managing disappointment elation
Research challenge:‍
  • Overwhelmed by Information
  • Navigating complex admission criteria
  • Fear of Missing Out on Potential Options
These insights provide us a valuable foundation for developing more targeted and effective support mechanisms for students navigating the complex landscape of university applications and course selections.

User persona

Problem statement

“Lost in a flood of info, unsure where to start. I wish there was a simpler way to find my perfect fit. Feels anxious about making the wrong choices due to limited time and effort spent on research.”

User Journey Map

The Ideation:

To start from "a starting point"

While we confident that research challenges can be addressed through the proposed tool's functionalities, we've shifted focus to decision-making challenges, as students often struggle to initiate the process.

How might we guide students in establishing a starting point for their decision-making process?

A Two-Step Approach

When selecting a career path, it's important to consider both your predicted academic performance and your personal interests. We propose a two-step approach to help you make an informed decision:‍

Step 1: Narrow Your Options with Predicted Scores
Begin by determining your predicted scores. This will help you:
1) Focus on options within your reach
2) Adjust your choices realistically based on your projected performance.
3) Explore competitive options you may have previously overlooked

Step 2: Align with Your Interests and Aspirations
While predicted scores are crucial, it's equally important to consider your personal interests and desired career path. Aim to find programs that balance your academic capabilities with your passions. If trade-offs are necessary, this approach will help you make informed decisions.

Seek Advice with Confidence
This method provides a solid foundation for seeking advice from parents, peers, or teachers. It enables more constructive and realistic discussions tailored to your specific circumstances and aspirations. By presenting a clear picture of your options based on predicted performance, you can have more productive conversations about your future and potentially bridge any gaps between your aspirations and others' expectations.‍

Contingency Planning

Research indicates that 33% of DSE applicants lack a comprehensive contingency strategy. This deficiency leads to critical challenges within the 24-hour decision window post-result release:
Rushed applications to available programs
Potential compromise on academic preferences
Elevated stress levels
Insufficient time for program evaluation and interview preparation
To address these issues, we propose enabling users to create three distinct plans for different scenarios:
Baseline Scenario: Aligning with predicted results
‍Underperformance Scenario: Addressing lower-than-expected scores
‍Overperformance Scenario: Capitalizing on higher-than-anticipated results
By adopting this multi-faceted approach, applicants can navigate the application process with enhanced preparedness and adaptability.

Research flow optimization: Act quick in critical moment

Optimised user flow for new users who haven't developed a contingency plan and have scored lower than expected in their DSE. This scenario demands a streamlined approach to meet urgent user needs, prioritizes efficiency and user-friendliness by eliminated non-essential steps.
Prototyping:

Lofi wireframe

We then quickly move forward to Lofi prototype, as we want to quickly exampify if the flow can addressed the two major challenges, if not we can move back to ideate process for other solution.

Usability Study

I conducted a moderated test encompassing two distinct scenarios, in addition to a general usability assessment. The scenarios were designed to evaluate user performance under Stage 1 and Stage 3 conditions:
‍
1) Research and Planning in a Relaxed Environment:
In this scenario, users were given sufficient time to complete assigned tasks, simulating a situation where they could plan and research at their own pace - Phase 1.
‍
2) Time-Constrained Task Completion:
This scenario required users to complete tasks within a short timeframe: To finish the course selecting process base on their interest with given DSE score in short amount of time given - Phase 3
‍
Each scenario was evaluated using different KPIs, including but not limited to: Time on task, User error rate, Task completion rate, User satisfaction scores.

Usability Study: Findings

Affinity diagram:
Effectiveness :
1. Result : SMS, take photo, Enter manually
2. Overview of the choices they have. we
‍3. Listing: 2 view, can have a over view look

Essential
- Navigation, I m a bit with where am I, 3 main cat, linear flow
‍
- created list without comparsion, (didnt know there have compare function,
- Compare course function failed
share to friends and parent for opinion.
‍
How long does it take a user to find and book a dog walker in the app? And what can we learn from the user flow, or the steps that users take, to book a dog walker? We'll need to come up with insights that answer either or both of these questions.


‍



‍

The impact


I am glad that the color and illustation that can help to ease user emotion, i believe in future with the assist of AI.

After two weeks of user research, analysis and redesign, I was able to validate the assumptions and changes I had made. I did this by testing my clickable prototype with seven new users. The results are:

​

  1. Searching for inspirations: 7 out of 7 users found it on the home screen in 5 seconds.
  2. Shopping: 7 out of 7 users were able to switch between pictures of a same product.
  3. Looking for Pros: 6 out of 7 users were able to find it quickly.
  4. Selecting Pros: 7 out of 7 users were able to sort and select easily.
  5. Looking for Pros: 6 out of 7 users clicked "Request a Quote" and found it helpful.

​

Notes: For future studies, I would like to spend more time collecting data on how often users call and how often users email when looking for home professionals. Also, how is this received from the business side.  

‍

‍

‍

I think this project is rather meaningful to me, instead of developing just a precios tools to help, I want to build a emotional enagament to help then to ease their emotion, provide some humaidte let the user feels that caring and supporting.

Other projects

All projects
All projects

Hong Kong Art Festival

Hong Kong Art Festival

Asiasat

Asiasat

DSE Calculator

DSE Calculator

DSE Calculator