70% Reduction in Application Friction.
Redesigning the student journey from discovery to enrolment.
Role
Lead Product Designer
Timeline
18 Months
Team
1 PM, 4 Engineers, 1 UX Researcher
Year
2020 - 2026
The Problem
Graduin's legacy web experience had a 68% drop-off rate on its application form. Complex multi-step flows, inconsistent feedback patterns, and a non-responsive interface were costing enrolment conversions at scale.
The Approach
Conducted a full UX audit and five contextual inquiry sessions with prospective students. Mapped the existing 14-step application flow against completion heatmaps. Identified six high-friction decision points where users abandoned.
The Solution
Rebuilt the core application experience as a progressive web app (PWA 2.0) with intelligent form chunking, offline-capable state persistence, and contextual micro-copy. Reduced the cognitive load from 14 steps to 5 milestone stages with real-time progress signals.
Outcomes