Override the default image zoom level and lock it to
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for forward & backSpace Bar
to cycle image zoom.An iOS app concept to help students
with the college selection process
I was asked by Matthew Pattinsky to
create a concept for a free College
Selection App for iOS as a lead get tool
to collect students earlier in the
consumer lifecycle. I’ll admit that this
case study is low only my priority list as
funding was restricted before it made it
past the concept stage. I usually hesitate
to include things that weren’t actually
built, but I thought it was worth including
it as an example of native app design. I
appreciate your patience as I pull my
portfolio together, please feel free to
contact me with any questions!
Parchment is the largest provider of
digital transcripts, facilitating the transfer
of more than half the college
applications made in the United States
every year. This gave them
unprecedented access to both academic
and acceptance data. They were in the
process of creating a new product called
Analyze that would allow college
recruiters to access and understand that
data. I was asked to create an app
concept that would take this same data
and provide college recommendations
to students after asking a series of
questions using predictive algorithms.
This would have minimal upkeep cost to
Parchment once it was in place, but
could be monitored by providing
additional integration for future
recruitments tools. Additionally, it served
as a means of getting students into the
Parchment ecosystem before the
colleges application process as a part of
their larger organizational objective
related to digital credentials.
I started by asking our Product
Managers what data they would collect
to make accurate college predictions. I
then narrowed that down to a subset
that we already had, or would be
accessible and valuable for their
existing products. Once we defined
the objectives, we asked how we could
incentivize students to engage with
the app. We started by providing
admissions chances for any School
based on basic GPA and SAT data,
requiring no self-identifying
information. We then offered college
recommendations if they created a
Parchment account and answered a
series of questions. We proposed a
“what if” tool to allowed students to
create a list of actionable steps to
improve their chances of admission to
any given institution. Finally, they could
compare institutions based on data that
we were already collecting in a survey
that asked why students had selected
the colleges they had.
My favorite part of this project was
figuring out how to do novel things
with the data that Parchment already
had, and using that to provide a
valuable service to real people.
Colleges spend a lot of money on
advertising and students often send
out 7 to 12 expensive and time-
intensive applications due to their own
lack of information. I liked that our
solution benefited our organization
without being unethical, aiming to
solve a real world problem rather than
inappropriately taking advantage of
user data. The biggest challenge for me
was defining a journey that was
engaging to students while still
gathering enough information to
effectively match them with schools. I
also like that we did this using natural
language questions rather than a
series of forms so that students could
feel like they were having a dialogue
with the app instead of entering
numbers into an equation.
I was the principal designer for all of the work shown unless otherwise noted, and I am the author and creator of the case studies within this portfolio. This website exists as a digital resume for the purpose of providing proof of experience in order to gain future potential work. Many of these projects were completed collaboratively in a “creative for hire” agency, freelance contract, or software company with copyright assigned to that entity or client.
I always have language in my creative contracts that I discuss with clients and employers that specifies my ability to display my work publicly. This includes concepts and processes as well as final deliverables, given that all of these are necessary to display my competence as a UX and Product Designer. I follow best practices to the best of my ability to assure that my work for clients is in compliance with copyright, either through open licensing or purchase of stock photography, mockups, icons, and other creative resources. However, I recognize that digital ownership is sometimes disputed on the internet. I do not assume legal liability for work completed in good faith on behalf of corporations and organizations, even if it is displayed here in my Resume. Even so, I take copyright and intellectual property seriously as a professional designer and photographer.
If you have any questions or concerns about something displayed here, please contact me and I will do my best to resolve them as simply and expediently as possible. Thank you!