Plan for School is a university application organizer that provides tools to manage application information and deadlines. User research found it difficult for applicants to track requirements and deadlines without notifications, and for recommenders to keep track of many recommendation requests. The application addresses these issues through an interface with modular school pages, breadcrumb navigation, and an accordion sidebar. Usability testing found the layout intuitive but identified confusions over saving requirements and adding recommenders. Suggestions included online document editing and version control.

1. PLAN FOR SCHOOL
user centered research evaluation
carnegie mellon university

2. “ Plan for School is a university
applications organizer that
provides tools to manage the
information required for the
successful and timely completion
of university applications.

3. WHY “PLAN FOR SCHOOL” ?

4. USER RESEARCH

5. PROSPECTIVE PROFESSORS GRADUATE STUDENTS
STUDENT (recommenders) (domain experts)

6. USER RESEARCH - DIAGRAMS
AFFINITY DIAGRAM

7. USER RESEARCH - DIAGRAMS
ARTIFACTS

8. USER RESEARCH - DIAGRAMS
ARTIFACTS

9. USER RESEARCH - DIAGRAMS
ARTIFACT DIAGRAM

10. USER RESEARCH - DIAGRAMS
CULTURAL DIAGRAM
ONLINE APPLICATION SYSTEM
“ What information
do I need to fill? “ Fill all this “ What
Fill in all the information,
information. information do I
“ Can you remind Also look at other
need to fill? ”
me about the unnecessary information
Sorry there are no
deadline? “ “ Can you
reminder emails. Sorry, there are
remind me about
no reminder emails
the deadlines? “
“ Can you review my
APPLICANT “ Can you recommend RECOMMENDER
• Gather all the me to this college? “ • Frame the
admission documents? “
application information recommendation letter
• Ask for • Complete the
“ It looks fine. recommendations “ Can you give me recommendation
FRIENDS Maybe you • Complete the online the details? “
“ Can you please
should change application “ I completely forgot
• Provide suggestion
this. “ • Send the application about the deadline? “ consider this applicant
and feedback
materials for admissions? “
“ Look at my
“ Can you please
portfolio. Also I am
tell me about your
interested in
working with you. “
research? “ DEPARTMENT
ADMINISTRATOR
UNIVERSITY • Review application
PROFESSOR requests
• Guide prospective
students

11. USER RESEARCH
FINDINGS - PROSPECTIVE STUDENTS
• It is hard to keep a track of specific requirements for each
college.
• The applicants (prospective students) have to constantly look at
their excel sheets or notebooks to determine approaching
deadlines. There are no notifications.
• Users do not carry all important documents everywhere and
therefore are limited to completing their applications at home.
• Applicants face many complications when asking for
recommendations and trying to keep track of the
recommendation status.

12. USER RESEARCH
FINDINGS - RECOMMENDERS
• It is hard for the users to keep track of all the recommendation
requests. They find it tedious to make a list of pending requests.
• Some of the recommendation systems employed by University
application administrations do not send deadline notifications.
• The recommenders usually get 75-100 emails everyday because
of their work profile and it is easy for a recommendation email to
get lost in the email list.

13. SKETCHES

14. INFORMATION FOR
UNIVERSITY APPLICATIONS

15. NAVIGATION MAP

16. HOME PAGE / DASHBOARD
Modular Interface
Design
The interface was
designed to support
separate modules in the
same view

17. SCHOOL PAGE
Breadcrumb Navigation
Provides an easy way to
navigate between view
hierarchies
Accordion Style
Sidebar
Navigation
Allows user to quickly
browse & reference
inner links

18. WIREFRAMES

19. Home Page
Individual
School Page
HOME PAGE

20. LET’S TAKE A LOOK

21. USABILITY EVALUATION

22. PROSPECTIVE PROFESSORS GRADUATE STUDENTS
(recommenders) (domain experts)
STUDENT

23. USABILITY EVALUATION
FINDINGS
Users found the layout of the pages and navigation to be
very intuitive and easy to use.
The breadcrumb navigation was very helpful. For the
most part users relied on breadcrumbs for navigation.
Users were confused about saving a new requirement to
the to-do list and adding a new link for each college.
Users failed to add a new recommender to a particular
college when no recommenders were on the list of
common recommenders.

24. USABILITY EVALUATION
SUGGESTIONS
1. System should support online viewing and editing
for documents.
2. Provisions to maintain multiple versions of the
document would be helpful.

25. http://planforschool.net/
http://kaushalagrawal.com/planforschool

26. APPENDIX - SKETCHES

27. COLLEGES PAGE

28. ADD COLLEGE PAGE

29. RECOMMENDER PAGE

30. PERSONAL INFORMATION PAGE

31. RECOMMENDER’S HOME PAGE

32. APPENDIX - WIREFRAMES

33. HOME PAGE