Main goals
Designing the co-pilot
When designing Eden, I had three main tenets to keep in mind.
🪴
Main prompts for pages where the co-pilot is accessed needed to address the major pain points that users have on those pages.
🎨
Needs to align with ApplyBoard branding, but distinguish itself enough on the page so users understand this is a completely new feature.
👀
Co-pilot needed to seamlessly integrate into the existing ApplyBoard direct student product, and be accessible from all points in the experience.
Goal 1
Anticipating user needs
Using pre-existing research completed at ApplyBoard, I crafted a series of prompts based on the application stage of the student, pain points and that stage, and services ApplyBoard offers that could resolve those pains and improve the experience.
The goal for Eden's default state, discoverable on ApplyBoard's dashboard, was to highlight the variety of prompts, ranging from finding top programs to help preparing for interviews.
It was important that Eden fit into all parts of the student experience. For example, on program application pages, Eden can generate application to-do lists, summarize deadlines, and more.
Student interviews have shown that students struggle to stay organized because of multiple applications and the various unique requirements for each.
Goal 2
Making the co-pilot stand out
Our co-pilot Eden needed to fit into the existing ApplyBoard branding, but it's unlike anything else ApplyBoard offers. Because of this, we needed to make it stand out, but still look cohesive with the rest of the brand guidelines.
Goal 3
Visibility
Co-pilot is meant to service students on all parts of the student experience, so it needs to live where students can access it quickly and easily on all pages.
One entry point is in the header navigation bar, and the other is through a first-landing prompt. Once a student enters their account after co-pilot has been launched, the prompt will show them how the co-pilot can support them based on the application stage the student is in.
Wrap up
Reflecting
This was an extremely fun project to work on. This is the first project involving AI that I've worked on, and I really enjoyed visualizing how it could improve the ApplyBoard student experience! In the future, I'd love to continue building on this concept, and improving it through iterative user testing.
