My Role
Founding Designer
Product Design
UX / UI
Q/A
The most recent version of the platform (2023), rolled out last year. I led the design, championing a smooth experience on mobile web, desktop, iOS, and Android. I teamed up with colleagues across different areas in our small group—data science/marketing, development, and sales—to make our shared vision a reality.
Why did we build Plexuss?
College research is often a messy, tedious, and disorganized process. As a team of recent college graduates who had navigated the challenges ourselves, we set out to make it easier for future students. Along the way, we built a supportive, academically focused community and created a platform packed with tools and resources to guide students through every step of their journey.
Student problems we wanted to address
Making the scholarship process easier & consolidated
Provide better tools & resources to make the college research process easier
Building a truly academic community vs an entertainment/content driven social network
Scholarships
To qualify for scholarships, most platforms require students to provide extensive information before they can begin applying. While Plexuss collected a substantial amount of data during signup, there were still a few critical details missing to fully qualify students.
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