From Idea to Market Four designers had an idea: what if we made college applications less stressful? This is the story of how BoostU came to be and how these designers created a product that is efficiently designed, accessible and empowering.
Table of Contents brand guidelines 1. What We Are 2. Research 3. Development 4. Bringing It to Market
What We Are A tool to make the college application process more accessible and attainable by improving goal setting and time management using a personally tailored calendar.
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brand guidelines
www.BoostU.com The home page provides options to search for potential schools and to create a personal profile to take full advantage of what BoostU offers. Once you log in, our colleges function allows students to enter personal data and calculate how likely their admission is. It is by no means a guarantee, but it can help the process of narrowing down which schools to spend time and money applying to.
The second primary function that BoostU offers is a personalized calendar. Tailored to students’ target schools, with a notification center to remind students of upcoming deadlines. Students can view the schedule in three different ways: a calendar, a scroll-down timeline, or a task list. Students can also modify and add their own personal deadlines to help keep themselves on track.
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Start your journey. Search colleges
Location
Institution 2-year
4-year
Select state
Public
Private
100
Cost Tuition & Fees $0
miles from
$30k
Average Net Price (Tuition & Fees – Financial Aid)
ZIP code $0
< 3,000 students
Rural
3,000–15,000 students
Female
Urban
Work-study programs International student aid
> 15,000 students
Co-Ed
Suburban
$60k
Male
Religious affiliation
Copyright © 2013 BoostU. All rights reserved.
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Start your journey. Search colleges
Selectivity
Majors
Activities
Open admission
Art & Architecture
Men’s
> 75% admitted
Business
Select sport
50%–75% admitted
Engineering
25%–50% admitted
Health & Medicine
< 25% admitted
Humanities Interdisciplinary Studies Law Math & Science Public & Social Work
Copyright © 2013 BoostU. All rights reserved.
Women’s
Greek life
No Greek
Band
Chorus
Dance
Drama
Film
Lit mag
News
Radio
Orchestra
TV
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Pantone 7578 C RGB: 255, 107, 42 CMYK: 8, 72, 97, 0 Pantone 7576 C RGB: 225, 133, 78 CMYK: 9, 56, 77, 0 Pantone Netural C tagline emphasizes thatBlack BoostU 32 is a tool toRGB: aid 35, the31,process CMYK: 71, 66, 73 and that students are65,already capableâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;we just make it easier.
25px, minimum size: screen usage
identity
p Icon
The color palette of the BoostU website was kept simple: black and white with orange, aligning with our logo. Orange was chosen to set BoostU apart from similar applications and to provide a feeling of warmth and energy. Our logo is recognizable and easily adaptable to different platforms, emphasizing the educational and stepping-stone processes involved in college applications.
App Icon
app icon
Browser Favicon
favicon
advanced search, designed to narrow down based on studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; preferences colleges can be filtered through the kind of institutions, location, cost, selectivity, majors, and activities offered
flipping between different filters keeps the information condensed onscreen.
Br
COLLEGES
Search colleges
CALENDAR
HELLO MATTHEW MONTANEZ
1
University of California, Los Angeles 4-year
Public
Co-Ed
Urban
General
27,941 undergraduates
Majors
22% of students admitted
Campus
Cost
Applying
Deadlines
According to our calculations, UCLA is a reach school for you.
SAT Mid-Range Scores 490
560–680
200
800 Critical Reading 550
600–760
800
200 Math 480
590–710
200
800 Writing
ACT Composite Mid-Range Scores 20
25–31
1
36
Copyright © 2013 BoostU. All rights reserved.
more detailed information
information based on the criteria you entered on the search page
your score
average scores for the school
add the school to your calendar
notification center
COLLEGES
CALENDAR
Search colleges
HELLO MATTHEW MONTANEZ
Matthew’s Calendar Drexel CSUF
Drexel UCLA
Drexel
Drexel UCSD
Month
Scroll
Task
FEB
FEB 5 Drexel
Common App essay prompts released
FEB 8 Drexel CSUF
Drexel UCLA
Drexel
Deadline to register for the March 9 SAT
MAR
MARCH 8 Drexel CSUF
Drexel UCLA
Drexel
Deadline to register for the April 13 ACT
MARCH 9 Drexel CSUF
Drexel UCLA
Drexel
SAT Exam
APR
APRIL 13 Drexel CSUF
Drexel UCLA
ACT Exam
AUG
Drexel
1
Research The biggest challenge is that many students lack clear, essential information because they did not have access to counselors, family members, or mentors who understand the current application processes.
the audience Interviewing primarily students who have recently been through the college application process, Students like these are confused and overwhelmed with the abundance of non-standardized requirements and deadlines.
ASPIRING MOTIVATED RESOURCEFUL CONFUSED LIMITED
It was stressful because there were so many different deadlines and supplements I had to complete and make perfect. —Connie Gan, college freshman
It was stressful because I had to manage all the different parts and deadlines for all the schools. —Arthur Arcaz, college freshman
I wish I had clearer deadline dates on general or financial applications. —Kristalyn McAfee, college sophomore
It was hard because my parents had no idea what was going on and I was the oldest child. —Jacob Hale, college junior
Naviance requires an account and password provided from your school. If your school is not registerd, you cannot get access. The design is also not cohesive and cluttered.
the competition BoostU is an interactive and well-designed motivational tool to keep students on track. Unlike websites such as Naviance and BigFuture by College Board, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s clean and calming design focuses on the timeline of the search and application process, distilling the information into the most important parts. BoostU is also accessible to everyone.
BigFuture is a wealth of resources, but the information is overwhelming. In the Applying 101 section, you get several articles that are similar with no clear hierarchy of where to start.
Development The BoostU team knew that it wanted to develop something to empower students to take charge of their college applications. But what did this mean? We brainstormed different ideas: what we wanted the tool to do, how we wanted it to look, and how we wanted to empower our audience.
vision and values To the right is a compilation of our adjectives describing what we wanted BoostU to be. Based on overlap and personal favorites, we compiled words that distilled our purpose to the core of BoostUâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s identity as a company.
CLEAR EMPOWERING INTUITIVE INFORMATIVE EFFICIENT
useful local smart comforting nice productive life-saving wonderful money-saving time-saving precocious appreciated
beneficial
aiding multiracial generational collegiate progressive functional beneficial parental learning studious immigrant
helpful innovative efficient
barrier-breaking accessible bilingual comprehensive easy-to-use empowering leveling desirable to use concise well-designed interesting exciting forward-looking sophisticated opposite of condescending supportive aspirational non-corporate instructive engaging
clean clear friendly
educational tailored new crisp stable interactive student-oriented direct informative organized visually (generically) appealing easy to digest understandable navigable open-ended versatile green/blue/colorful? high-end user-friendly broad digestable
BoostUâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s impact We want BoostU to inspire the audience and to be something that the audience identifies with. This tool is a boost for our audience, helping them realize their full potential. They already have everything they need, this tool just provides the clarity to show them that.
EMPOWERMENT CONFIDENCE PREPAREDNESS ACCOMPLISHME ENERGY
T
ENT
informed competent
relieved assisted satisfied hopeful optimistic assured successful
happy confident
knowledgable
aided satisfied guided educated stress-free stepping forward? understood educated familiarized
empowered excited
clear-minded
calm ready
helped prepared
productive on-track purposeful meaningful accomplished assured boosted energized pushed prepped coached practiced strengthened fortified
stable at ease “better” serene relaxed capable independent organized able under control “grown-up” sense of community
visual attributes There is a push and pull between a tool that is warm and inviting and a tool that is clean and sophisticated. The challenge was to reconcile these two approaches, which weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve done in the visual brief. We focused on a clean, clear presentation of information and strong, bold spot colors. The BoostU team assembled a moodboard, pictured here, to visually direct our product.
CLEAN INVITING CLEAR LIGHT GRAPHIC
except with a sherpa theme?
me?
simple graphics
Bringing It to Market The BoostU team developed a variety of strategies to put our product into the world. Targeting students directly through social media and through brochures mailed and handed out in high school counselorsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; and college admissionsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; offices, our promotions are just like our website: clean, clear and accessible.
brochures These pocket-sized pamphlets are simple, easy to digest, and perfect for the student stopping by a counselorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s office for college resources. The bold color palette prevents it from getting lost with all the other papers, but its size is designed for ease of handling and storage into a studentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s bag for future reference.
Applying to college can be stressful.
With BoostU, you’ll never miss a deadline.
Access this free tool at
BoostU.org
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We automatically sync all of your colleges’ due dates to your calendar.
You can opt in to have us send you text messages or emails to remind you about upcoming deadlines.
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Just select the colleges you’re interested in, and scroll to see important updates.
Input your preferences, and we’ll help you find a college that fits your needs.
advertisements Facebookâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ad tools and features, such as FBX, Custom Audiences, and Lookalike Audiences, allow BoostU to target high school students. Spotify is linked to Facebook accounts, and ads can thus be targeted to students in a similar fashion. As many students do not pay for Spotify Premium, advertising is an integral part of the Spotify user experience.
Begin the journey with BoostU today.
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brand
Š Kara Gordon 2013 Visual Information, Washington University in St. Louis. Whitney Medium 9/12 pt. guidelines Vista Slab Black Italic 20 pt. Thank you to Kathleen Huang, Ariana Montanez, and Emilio Ramos for all of their hard work throughout this project.