FUNDACRED is a company that makes student loans available so people can attend college. As a away to make the process easier, the company decided to develop an online testing platform, which automatically selects the candidates. I worked on this project from end to end as a Product Designer in 2021.

PROBLEM

Our big challenge was to build a platform that would serve both the student and the educational institutions. They would have the total management of the exams, and also analyze passed and failed exams or personalize each of them for the courses.

The students would have total control of their enrollments and could also take all the admission exams and plan the financing with FUNDACRED.

DISCOVERY

This stage has the goal of gathering as much information as possible about the project from different perspectives as a way to ensure a correct understanding of the problems that need to be solved.

METHODOLOGY OF RESEARCH

We obtained results through a qualitative research process which was divided in two stages:

At first, we conducted an immersion interview with Fundacred's consultants and other profiles in order to better understand the scenario, its challenges, and opportunities;

In the second stage, we have done a semi-structured in-depth interview technique. There were four people interviewed: three of them with the profile of a student at the end of his schooling (high school) and one with the profile of an administrative profile from an Educational Institution.

RESULTS

After conducting the interviews, we rode a research report about the findings we had, between Educational Institutions and Students, into two fronts.

EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS

As we had the opportunity to interview only one Institution, we do not have a complete picture of the expectations of the Educational Institutions about the platform.

STUDENTS

The interviews were conducted with 3 students seeking to explore some points previously raised by a journey study, thus bringing some insights and also possible impacts for the development of the platform.

BENCHMARK

The benchmarking process was done through Desk Research with three direct competitors of Fundacred : the portals of Quero Bolsa, Pravaler, and Creduc. The main goal was to analyze how the competitors have been performing and also to identify possible improvements to be included in the platform of FUNDACRED.

BLUEPRINT

We did a blueprint to better understand the customer journey from the moment the access is given by FUNDACRED to the Educational Institution. That way we had all the steps: since the creation of the selection process until the completion and enrollment of the student.

SITEMAP

Once the discovery process was finished, we started to define the information architecture through the creation of a sitemap, thus defining the navigation structure for both logged areas: the Educational Institutions and the Students.

PROTOTYPE

After defining the sitemap we started to create a high-fidelity prototype which was chosen because of the time available. As the platform is responsive, with this type of prototype time is saved and it is possible to make validations and adjustments faster.

The prototype contemplates the whole project, including the logged areas of FUNDACRED, Teaching Institutions, and the Student's environment where he/she can follow and perform the applications and tests.

NAVIGABLE PROTOTYPE

Presenting a navigable prototype of the exam area as a way to test with some students, we had very positive feedback. Some highly relevant insights that we promptly adjusted in the prototype before uploading the final version.

FINAL CONSIDERATIONS

This project was intense and complex, with many fronts which included FUNDACRED, Educational Institutions, and Students. During the whole process, all sides were heard, and the discovery stage brought important insights. I believe that the final result was delivered very close to what the user expects to find on the platform.

My journey in the project ended with the delivery of the project screens. However, I collected feedback after my departure and the numbers and post-publication tests showed that a valuable product was delivered and that made me very happy.