A streamlined university application platform designed to help students manage multiple applications efficiently. With intuitive UI and strategic UX, Calico eases the admission journey by simplifying comparisons, deadlines, and documentation—all in one place.
Designed for modern students navigating complex admissions processes. This dashboard delivers structure, status transparency, and smart features—all in one place.
This project began with understanding the core needs of students applying to multiple universities, focusing on simplifying their journey through clear, functional design. I initiated the process by conducting a thorough analysis of user goals, followed by creating personas and user flows to map out the experience. Wireframes were developed using a mobile-first approach, ensuring accessibility and ease of navigation. Key UX principles such as information hierarchy, consistency, and affordance guided the layout, while task prioritization helped in structuring sections like Applications, Documents, and Scholarships. Iterative feedback loops and usability heuristics ensured a user-centered design that not only aligned with business goals but also enhanced student engagement. This dashboard reflects a balanced blend of functionality, aesthetics, and empathy-driven design.
Problem Statement
Students face confusion and fatigue while applying to multiple universities across different platforms. Calico addresses this pain point by offering a centralized, user-friendly interface that consolidates applications, deadlines, and document management in one place.
Why Calico?
Unlike conventional portals, Calico focuses on user experience by enabling bulk application actions, offering personalized application guidance, and providing seamless document verification—making the entire process faster and clearer.
User-Centered Design
The design process was guided by a deep understanding of the target users—students applying to multiple universities. Through surveys and interviews, I gathered insights about their pain points, goals, and behaviors. This led to creating interfaces that reflected real needs rather than assumptions.
Calico adheres to widely accepted UI conventions and design patterns so users can navigate confidently without confusion. Design consistency reduces the cognitive load and enhances user trust.
Consistent use of UI components across pages
Standardized terminology
Applied atomic design methodology to maintain a scalable design system.
Simplicity and Clarity
One of the core goals was to simplify a traditionally complex process. Unnecessary information was eliminated, and the interface was kept clean and minimal.
Reduced form fields using smart defaults and dynamic inputs.
Grouped related content using card layouts.
Offered university filters and shortlists to minimize user effort.
Students share sensitive academic and personal information on this platform. To build trust, visual cues and UX writing were leveraged.
Trust badges and university affiliation logos.
Friendly, professional microcopy reassuring privacy and security.
Confirmation modals for all irreversible actions.
The ideation phase began with a clear focus on solving real pain points faced by students during their application process. I started by researching existing student platforms and dashboards to understand what works and where the gaps lie, drawing inspiration from platforms like Coursera, university websites, and design showcases on Behance and Dribbble. With the gathered insights, I translated early ideas into quick hand-drawn sketches to visualize potential layouts and user flows. These low-fidelity wireframes helped in exploring multiple variations without investing heavy time upfront. This sketch-first approach laid the foundation for a structured and iterative design process that evolved into clean, user-friendly wireframes aligned with modern UI/UX standards.
Designing Calico required the application of foundational UX principles that ensured the platform was user-centric, accessible, and intuitive. Here's a breakdown of the core principles used and how they were applied to create a seamless university application experience.
