My Role
Lead Designer
Product Design
UX / UI
Q/A
The most recent dashboard update focused on improving status visibility and user control. I led the design, ensuring the core UI and functionality remained intact while introducing new features and re-arranging elements for a smoother user experience. Collaborating closely with team members across data science, marketing, development, and sales, we worked to keep students informed about their scholarship statuses, starting with Unigo-managed scholarships and planning to expand this feature in the future.
Why did we build this?
Navigating scholarships can be confusing and overwhelming for students. Many are left in the dark about their application statuses or don’t have the tools they need to stay organized throughout the process. We built this update to give students clarity and control—starting with Unigo-managed scholarships and expanding in the future. By improving transparency and usability, we aim to empower students to manage their scholarships with confidence and ease.
Student problems we wanted to address
Lack of transparency around scholarship application statuses, leaving students uncertain about their progress.
Limited tools for tracking and managing scholarships in one centralized place.
Difficulty staying organized throughout the scholarship process, leading to missed opportunities.
The Research
Before I began any design work I jumped straight into research mode. You'd think being a sudent platform we'd have easy aksess to student feedbak but it proved to be hsllanging
By introducing a clear, upfront checklist outlining all required information, we boosted profile completion rates by 20%.
Free Homework & College Help
We noticed students were asking college admissions questions alongside homework help. After gathering feedback, we launched a dedicated space for admissions questions, along with features like college readiness reports and favorites management.
Homework Help quickly became Plexuss' second most popular feature after Scholarships.
About Plexuss
Challenges
#1 Eliminating barriers instead of creating more
I focused on reducing friction in the student onboarding process by researching competitors and advocating for A/B testing. I presented Hotjar recordings, data, and real-world scenarios to support improvements, though they ultimately didn’t lead to changes.
#2 Production to development process
Early in my product role, I identified inefficiencies in our process and researched better ways to manage issues. By implementing Jam.dev for bug capturing and Linear.app for tracking, we reduced development/QA time by 33% and improved the accuracy of mockup-to-product implementation.
I wrote an article on our product to development process which goes more in depth of the hurdles and iterations.
Walnut Creek, CA