Problem
International students struggle with unclear relocation information
As an exchange student at UofT, I experienced how international students struggle to find clear information on entry, housing, documentation, and local communities.
Outcome
A mobile app with reliable resources for students studying abroad
User Research
85% of students get lost in scattered university websites
Students start excited but get overwhelmed managing multiple university requirements. Research shows the main challenge is information overload.
User Flow
Collaborative ideation and prototyping
After individual wireframing sessions, the team's ideas merged into a prototype with four core modules: Onboarding, Discovery, Tracking, Discussion.
Wireframes & Progress
Iterating on modules
We validated prototypes through heuristic evaluation and usability testing, refining design based on user feedback and behavior analysis.
Discovery module
Immigration and university information management.
Before
User control & freedom
Heuristic evaluation revealed limited user control: users couldn't reset progress or explore multiple universities at once.
Iteration
Usability issues
After adding features, testing showed users were unclear what 'reset progress' meant, and overlooked 'create new journey'.
After
Clearer navigation
We simplified labels by changing "Create new journey" to "Add a new university" and added an Edit icon, making multi-university exploration more intuitive.
Discussion module
Community help and socialization.
Iteration
Missing discussion panel
Users barely noticed the discussion panel, often thinking it was broken, and its weird close-out method didn't help matters.
After
Improved discussion access
Relocated discussions to bottom navigation, organizing them by country and topic, with external community links for expanded support.
Branding
TravelSco Design System
TravelSco combines formalized blue for credibility with user-friendly rounded shapes and playful hand-drawn illustrations.
Final Designs
Meet TravelSco
TravelSco combines 4 key features that the team identified as those that solve key user pains.
Discover requirements
Access and save essential immigration information.
Create multiple journeys
Explore several countries and universities at the same time.
Track your progress
Track progress with a checklist of requirements.
Chat with peers
Join discussion to learn from others' experiences.
Retrospective
So how did it go?
During the final round of testing participants shared their feedback on the concept of TravelSco.
“It's a really good place to have all the information in.
I found it very hard to have these questions answered, just look at the official website - there is so much information.”
“I would definitely use this if I would be applying to new universities, cause nothing like this exists”