Plannr

Plannr app is a one stop destination for students wanting to do UG courses in India and giving entrance exams for them, giving personalised information, simulating careers, filling forms and handling applications.




The Problem:


Issues concerning finding information, repetitive, tedious work and keeping track of various applications frustrate students and waste their time. Parents are confused and uncertain when students want to take courses away from the mainstream. Existing interventions mostly focus on providing information and ratings.





The Process:


Secondary research and refining the problem followed by primary research through surveys and interviews. Brainstorming, card sorting and developing a visual design, which was refined after formative user testing with target audience.





The Outcome:


The app gives relevant and personalised information about colleges and careers in the students' desired field, according to their preferences, budget etc; as well as simplifying and automating the form filling process, creating a calendar to keep a track of important dates and of the application status of each college.





Research Findings:

The main issue faced by students centered around problems applying like tracking dates, finding study material, filling forms etc; followed by stress and peer pressure, and then outdated and hard to read information.

Problems vary drastically between streams like engineering and medicine and fields in liberal arts, mass communication, design etc.

Some parents felt that students, especially those opting for engineering, got into a particular course without knowing what their careers would entail after completing it.

Parents needed to be made more aware of their child's course and career especially in fields other than the STEM. The factor of what society will think still is a strong motivator in them.

Students mostly used online portals to look for information about colleges, and most of the other pain points were left unsolved.

My target audience

Naina

Naina is giving her 12th grade exams this year and has wanted to do design for 2 years as she has heard about the course from her cousin, a product designer. She doesn't attend coaching classes and hence is struggling to find mock papers etc. She finds it hard to keep track of all the different applications and has made an excel sheet for the same. She didn't like filling out different forms as she had to enter the same data repeatedly for 5 different colleges.

She wants to:
Speed up and automate filling of forms. Be able to keep track of important dates.
Have access to question banks and mock papers.

Sudha

Sudha is a homemaker who used to work in sales before marriage. Her son wants to do design and she isn't very aware of the field and what it covers, as no one in the family has done it before. She doesn't know how careers in the field will look like and be secure. Her son has taken a break year after giving engineering entrances in 12th grade and, if he doesn't get into a good design college, she wants him go back to engineering.

She wants to:
Be certain of her son's decision to do design.
Learn about the field and the careers and financial security offered.



How it Works

Information About Colleges:

All information about various colleges is available at one place, and students can set reminders for ones that appeal to them.

They can personalise their feed to find colleges relevant to their budget, geographical preferences, preferred course etc and access extra information and communication regarding scholaships, acccomodation etc if they need.

This option, along with progressive disclosure ensures that students and parents don't feel overwhelmed by the amount of content.

Plannr uses data in the account section of the app to automatically fill application forms; as well as cropping and uploading the required documents.

It shows users a completed preview before submitting and logs the exam dates, stores the application form, confirmation message etc under the relevant college folder.

Calendar:

Plannr automatically stores important dates for application forms, entrance exam dates, result dates etc in the calendar, sends alerts on the required days and updates it as and when added information is released by colleges.

CTA buttons exist within the calendar screen itself if relevant, so that students can directly do the needful

It ensures students don't forget/ miss out on exams and application forms of colleges, They don't need to manually note down dates and keep checking college websites.

Careers:

The career predictor feature enables students and parents to find out exactly what they student will be doing after college, depending on preferred specialisation, sub specialisation, choice of location, interests and other factors.

It explains the field of work, scopr for growth, salary and top companies in that field

It helps students make an informed decision, and lays to rest the confusion in parents minds about courses not very mainstream, and worry that their children do not know what their professional futures will entail.

Lists of top companies and information about them is also available

My Colleges:

Shows users a quick summary of the application status of each college applied to, including how much of the process is left, and what comes next.

Gives detailed information for each step if users want. For example: under appearing for the entrance test, it tells them where the centre is, when the test starts, documents to carry, and lets them book a vehicle if needed.

Important documents like the filled application form, hall tickets, test results, personal documents submitted to the institute etc are automatically stored here

It ensures students have all the data easily accessible, can easily keep track of a potential college's status, don't end up losing documents etc.