Choosiversity

Problem Space

Our desk research shows that high school graduates often struggle to find an university and study that perfectly fits with them. This is especially true for students who consider studying abroad, as this greatly increases their range of possibilities. Addressing these challenges with a recommendation system that gathers the needs and wants of a student in a fun and engaging way can help young adults form better informed opinions on their next steps.

How do we solve this problem?

To figure out what aspiring students are looking for, we conducted five interviews with our target audience and we performed a literature review of available research about the needs of the target audience and what kind of solutions already exist.

• Match the user's information needs
  The three most important factors when choosing higher education are the reputation or image of the school, the attitude of the students towards school and the academic quality of the school[1].
• Knowledge-based Recommender System
  A constraint-based Recommender System (RS) is chosen over a case-based RS, as the latter offers a type of recommendation based on similarity among users, whereas the former, better preserve the uniqueness of the individual by analyzing each case as separate[2].
• Gamification Elements
  Keeps the user motivated and engaged to give the best recommendation possible, while helping the user in making this process less stressful[3].

Visualize Concept

To develop the interface, a mood board was designed from scratch to make the overall appearance of the platform coherent with the goal of the project; to decrease the stress and to make the journeys of choosing the university more fun. Therefore, it has been decided to implement rounded fonts and shapes, bright colors, and quirky doodles in order to communicate and deliver this dimension of lightness and happiness.

Final Design

The final design was created through iterative design. After a prototype was finished a cognitive walkthrough was performed with a member of the target audience. This feedback would inform us about the strengths and weaknesses of the design, causing us to continuously refine and change the application for the better.