AlumSum

Briefly...

The Challenge

The student loan crisis is greater than ever. Graduates are frustrated by conflicting information from disconnected providers, a lack of financial strategy, and poor visibility into how others are handling their debt.

Our team was tasked with designing the MVP for a platform that organizes all student financial information in one spot and accepts loan payments.

Project Stats

Design Practices:
competitive analysis, industry research, surveys and synthesis, user interviews, wireframes, prototyping, usability testing.
Teammates:
Nathan Garrett, Connie Kim, and Matthew Kirsch
Timeframe:
Ongoing since Sept 2019
Tools:
Miro, Sketch, InVision

My Role

Since this project had a longer runway, I played a heavier role in initial research and synthesis, along with sketching wireframes and concepts.

I led the design of our mid- to high-fidelity wireframes and interactive prototype. I conducted multiple rounds of usability tests with our team, advised our client on website and content strategy, and created our walkthrough video.

Though the project has formally ended, I am continuing to work with the client, designing their public-facing website.

The Solution

Alumsum simplifies the financial picture by combining all student loan information into one place. It makes payment recommendations for more efficient payoff, accepts and tracks payments via Stripe, generates refinancing suggestions, offers educational content to clarify the student loan landscape, and tracks payoff progress to foster a sense of accomplishment.

The interface was designed as a flexible grid of cards, each focused on a particular user need surfaced during research. This layout allows for flexible yet focused interactions, it scales well to different screen sizes, and it can be expanded as functionality is added in future iterations.

Users indicated that privacy and security are of great concern when it comes to finances, so we paid extra attention to on-boarding and information collection. Users are encouraged to add financial, educational, and other personal information to personalize their experience, but these are optional and can be completed later. Alumsum uses Plaid to link loan provider and bank accounts quickly and securely.

alumsum dashboard interface with graphs and charts

View clickable prototype

Prototype Walkthrough

Design Process

Research and Synthesis

post its and survey results organized into research themes

Design Workshop and Sketching

post its on a wall and interface sketching

notes, wireframes, and sketches, with man drawing on ipad

Persona Development

persona with needs, desires, and relevant key metrics and statistics

Usability Testing

screenshot of video conference during user testing

User Flows

Site Map

Looking Back

Project Takeaways

Onboarding: Our team underestimated the complexity of onboarding. Once we understood the importance of collecting sensitive data from users, we needed to gather this information politely while balancing privacy concerns. We needed to instill confidence in users that their data was being handled with respect.
Project Scope: The project timeframe was longer than many of my other projects. It underscored the importance of regular communication and being well-organized. Weekly check-ins with our client helped keep us on track. We also kept a firm stance on our role in the project while offering ideas and limited support pertaining to marketing and overall business strategy.
Remote Challenges: Early into the project, one of our teammates relocated to another state. We also had difficulty booking working space in cafes and local libraries, and we needed to coordinate file-sharing and pay close attention to version control. Through it all, we found creative solutions to these problems. For example, we ran a "remote card sort" during usability tests by dragging and dropping screenshots to help us determine the location of critical elements of our interface (pictured below).

card sort results showing how users organized interface elements

Further Exploration

Throughout this project, our team kept track of ideas that we wanted to explore, but that didn't fall within the current scope of focus. We ranked these ideas based on their value to the business and (estimated) implementation complexity (pictured below). Moving forward, the client can consider "easy wins" and "strategic initiatives" in future iterations.

idea brainstorming for future feature implementation, ranked by complexity and business value

Mobile Optimization: Our research showed that most users managed their student finances from a desktop computer, so the MVP for Alumsum is made with larger screens in mind. While the card-UI lends should scale to mobile, certain elements might need to be simplified or eliminated. We would like to further research mobile-specific functionality, such as notifications and content sharing.
Educational Content: Content centered around finance strategies, industry trends, and other related topics was included to in our mockups, but this functionality was not fully explored. The content does not yet exist, and depending on the author/partner, it might take different forms.
University Partnership: Our client envisioned Alumsum as an independent tool. Through our research, we identified an opportunity to partner with universities and offer it as a branded experience, both to current and graduated students. This strategy has broad implications, but it addresses a number of pain points we identified along the way, and university-specific functionality should be teased out further (for example, integration with other university tools). We created a vision for what a university-partner experience might look like (pictured below).

alumsum white labeled with university partners in respective school colors

Many thanks to the team and our client! We're excited to stay involved and look forward to seeing the platform evolve!

alumsum teammates working in a coffee shop

(check back soon!)

A platform to crush student loan debt