Nishant Talpade

Background

We want to understand the reasons behind why student’s, parent’s, and stakeholders face problems during the admission process as well as the problems faced by them while online payment processes and the highly stressful, frustrating and extensive paper-based process.

Hypothesis

Eliminate admission bottlenecks and simplify your operations with customized application processes for better results.
Student’s asking silly questions.
Pressure from the higher commodities on them.

Student point of view

Social anxiety, general anxiety, test anxiety, or panic attacks affects the students interest in the admission procedure.
Family expectations or problems have the greatest burden on one’s mind.
Depression, lack of energy or motivation, hopelessness, low self-esteem, loneliness affects the student’s engagement in the subject.
The application is incomplete. Missing test scores, and other applicant’s materials create a noise/kiosk in a student's mind.
If you applied to colleges where there is rolling admission, it generally can take six to eight weeks to receive a decision which ultimately leads the student to think that he/she will not get admitted to that particular college/university.
A 4.0 GPA is not good enough i.e. a cut off list for the colleges leads the student to think helpless/hopeless.
The caste certificate quota leads a student with an open category to not take admission over there.

Paper based process

It is so time consuming, frustrating and highly stressful that a large number of students miss the deadlines for college applications.
Application form is not user friendly because of many issues for students or parents while filling it online, also, it is not easy to navigate, simple.
Staff workload is heavy due to this.
Poor/ Confusing user journey.

Not device friendly

Forms are not device friendly; it gets very difficult for those who do not have a desktop/laptop.
We can only fill out forms from a particular device by which the person gets frustrated.

No Navigation in the Campus.

New Students Don’t have any idea about the campus, also there is no proper navigation in the campus

No option of Query Resolution of students during form filling.

Students are anxious while filling the online form.it is essential to resolve individual queries related to admission form. There is no chat bots option to resolve this problem.

Communicating with applicants.

Admission Process involves various process like form filling,
Merit List Publishing, Original Document verification. Each steps involves
Communication with prospective students.

Online payment is a problem for students and staff

Students face lots of problems while online payment reasons, websites not working, connectivity, on-line payment, system requirement, cost of transaction and lack of customer care etc.
In one survey people found that 75% of people find out it so difficulties in online payment
Not all students have debit cards, credit cards, online banking etc. Therefore, for this they have to go in search of this online payment. Rural area students have many difficulties as they do not have their cards etc. So sometimes, they have to depend on other people, relatives for online payment.
There are many technological problems in it. Sometimes even if they are not notified that they have paid it sir not no helpline no or enquiry number are there to talk on cog website.
There are no speedy transactions.
Even staff members have difficulties while using this new technology.
Due to slow internet or new functions, they face problems even if they make mistakes in payment.
People are also afraid of some frauds and their personal information.

Not being notified, due dates to staff and student creates a sort of tension in their minds.

There are no notification or deadline for particular form so students even miss there dates and due to this form or admission is cancelled
They do not even get payment notification on time due to that transaction sometimes they think it is not done and they do it twice.
Due to error and slow internet, they do fill forms but it has not shown to them that there is some error and students miss their form.
Old staff who are not regular touch with this online process are so slow to check all forms and payments so even they get frustrated, even if they are not notified on time they pass a false list sometime. Student entry that is not done.

Cost of online admissions

There is not whole thing about college not a good guidance our even images of campus leads the impression so bad even sometime website don’t respond fast and website don’t work 24/7
They are not given any guidance on the infrastructure or facilities of college.
Not a good communicating system is seen.
In one survey people came to know that 75% of students told that online admission are more costly than manual one mainly this problems are faced by Rural students reasons are Bank commission ,Internet browsing cafe charges ,printing, Transportation charges to go bank, challan charges.

Research Objectives

Research objectives for students’ views.

How the rolling admission process conducted by the universities affects a student’s psychology.
How the family of a particular student affects his/her behavior while taking admission.
What role does the peer’s play in one’s decision-making process of where to take admission i.e. (which stream, college, location).
How a student suffers/what he feels on seeing the cut off list of a big group of colleges, which are having an intake of students having a minimum CGPA of 4.0.
The situations, conditions, and challenges that an open category student faces because of the caste categorized quotas in different universities.
The problems /challenges faced by the officer who is placed on the admission cell as a manager.
How the form filling process affects a student / parent’s mentality.
What difficulties a student/parent faces while filling the form.
How the paper process work affects staff members.
How he/she suffers when they are not able to fill out the forms from different devices
The problems faced by a student who has been told to fill the online form by using only one specific device.
The research objective for this proposal is to see how students face problems while paying online fees.
How not being notified on time does create tension for staff and students.
The research objective is to identify if the cost of online admission is a real problem for students mainly living in rural areas.
Which transactions of payment they feel using and easy to use.
How not getting any helpline no for enquiry is a problem for them what they go through while they do not get to contact for some enquiry they want to know.
How new students will get information about the campus.
How to navigate the College area.
How people resolve their query during the form filling.
How Chabot helps them to resolve their query.
How the Account dept. Communicate with applicants.

Stakeholders

Students
Parents
Family
Teachers
Staff members
Trustee
Principle
Enquiry dept.
Registrar Dept.
Security
Social media
Account dept.
Passed out / Ex-students
Peers
Investors
Newspaper
Banks
Clerk

User participants

Students: Passed out/Ex – Part.1: Vaibhav;; Prospective – Part.2: Dipti; Part.3: Anurag;; Plebe/freshy - Part.4: Yash;; Other univ. - Part.5: Tanvi;; On campus - Part.6: Pavitar; Part.7: Shreya;
Parents: Non-educated - Part.8: Karan Singh;; Working - Part.9: Aishwarya;; Prospective studs. – Part.10: Shrikant;
Admission cell: Part.11: Madhvi ma’am;
Staff members: HOD – Prof.Vijay Shah 12
Faculty members: Professors’ – Prof. Ajinkya Hiran;13
Bank: Staff - Part.14: Vikram Singh;; Students - Part.15: Revati;

Methodology

For this study, we’re using one-on-one generative research interviews. This method will enable us to dig deeper into understanding our users and stakeholders, and enabling us to answer our objectives clearly and briefly.

Personal Interviews
Primary and Secondary research
Social media

Interview Guide

Students

Are you a student yourself?
Are you here for getting admission for yourself /someone else’s admission?
Why do you want to get admission in this particular university?
Which stream are you looking for, and why?
From where did you get the information about this stream offered in this university?
Are you a localite? If not then where?
So what about your stay in Pune?
What about your funding’s, and how are you going to manage them?
Which were some of the other colleges that you were looking for?

Parents

What are your expectations from the college?
What are your expectations from your child?
From where did you get the information about this stream offered in this university?
Are you a localite?If not then where?
So what about the stay of your child in Pune?
What about your funding’s, and how are you going to manage them?
What are some of the problems you are facing during the admission process?
What are your views about the online procedure?
What are your views about the online payment procedure?
What are the main factors that affect your decision on where to join your child?
Permissive/Non - What were your views when your child decided to go to this university and seek this particular course?
Non-permissive - How did you agree on your child’s decision for taking admission in this university?

Account Dept.

How do you manage the records of the students?
What problems do you face during the admission process?
What do you feel about the payment procedures and which one is better in your opinion?
How do you manage the chaos during the admission process?
How do you tackle the issues you face by parents and students?

Faculty Members.

What problems do you face during the admission process?
What are some of the questions asked by the students and the parents?
What do parents feel about schedule/College timings?
What is the importance of the placement cell for the parents?
What questions do you get regarding the strength of the class?
What are the views of the parents and students about the extracurricular activities offered in Dypiu?

Passed out/Ex-Students

How was your experience about this college?
What was your field/stream/degree in?.
How did you get to know about this university?
What was the procedure during your admission?
What were the problems you faced during the admission?
What were the issues you had to face during your degree course?
What do you recommend to have or to change in the campus about the admissions?

Prospective Students

How did you get to know about this university?
In which stream you have taken admission.
Are you a localite? If not then where?
What is your fee structure for the particular course?
How are you managing the fees for your initial years?
What was your fee procedure?
What problems did you face during the admission process?
What was the mode of payment during admission?
What problems did you face during the payment process?
Did you face any device issues during the payment process?
Did you encounter any device problems while filling the admission form?
What do you recommend to have or to change in the campus about the admissions?

Bank staff

Does your bank offer a student loan?
Is your bank linked to any universities?
What is the interest rate on the same?
What is the roughly annual ratio of the students applying for a student loan?
What is the percentage of them getting the loan passed?
What are the problems faced by students during this loan procedure?
What problems do you face from the universities regarding the loan procedures?
What are your opinions/views upon the loan procedures form both the sides i.e. universities as well as the bank?

Steps Followed

Ask

Research

Imagine

Plan

Create

Test

Improve

Approx Timeline

Resources

Google
Books
News papers
Pamphlets
Social media
Google meets
Spreadsheets
Word documents

Interview Conclusions

Notes of Dipti

Typing issus
Zoom in zoom out
Group issues - if she see someone with more documents that her then she faces some
psychological pressure
Pressurise from college to submit the docs. in their given time
Lives at a distance so faces anxiety for documents submission
Bank issues for payment through RTGS- RTGS is good
Online payment is risky if the amount is more
They make us run from building to building for documentation submission
The people are not at their place while documentation submission
While calling to college for info. - don't receive the calls
They ask you to come over there
They tell the call is on wrong dept.
For small to small job they call the students on campus
Notify them about the last moment changes though eg. the class timings
Daily updates about small things too: like events, campus, at least before admissions
Any sort of bulling or harassment then you can put up it on the app.
So upcoming Events

Tagging Process

Tagging the notes on the basis of; Habit : Pain Point : Task : Process : Need : Comfort : Motivation : Goal.

Affinity Mapping

Sorting of the tagged notes

Clusters

Sorting of the Tagged notes into some clusters

User Personas

Based on the broader themes, which would match.

User Journey Mapping

Based on the Journey that the user may follow.
Journey Mapping Topics

Travelling -

Travelled from mumbai to pune insearch of Dypiu, but faced many problems in finding the university location.

Form Filling -

Issues faced to fill the form after passing the 12 th boards

Education loan -

Issues faced to sanction the education loan from the bank

Hostel -

Was not a localite so faced issues to finalize the hostel.

Payment - done

Insights, POV and HMW Statements

Based on the user journey map had to remove some insights.

Insights of Education loan

They want bank to sanction their educational loan without any issue.
Student have to visit the college several time to complete the education loan process.
They want the interest rate on the education loan to be less.
Proper detailed informational about the education loan should be given from the bank and the college as well.
Challenge - Had to visit the college several time regarding education loan process.
POV – he had to visit the college several times to collect a sanctioning letter because he had to collect the documents and submit it to the bank.
HMW – HMW reduce his several visits to the college?
HMW help Yash getting his sanctioning letter quickly?
HMW him getting the document from the college?

Insights of Travelling

Wanted detailed information about the college location.
The university contact number was not of use.
They wanted detailed information about the courses offered in that college
Challenge - Location was needed to visit the college.
POV – – Yash needed a proper information about the location of the college because he was visiting the college for the first time and he didn’t wanted to waste his time in searching the university.
HMW – HMW save his time?
HMW help Yash in getting the proper location of the college?
HMW make his experience good?
HMW guide the students with the location who are visiting the college for the first time?

Challenge - To get a authenticated contact number.
POV – – Yash needed an authenticated contact information because he cannot visit the college anytime, as he is not a localite.
HMW – HMW make the contact information available for the students like Yash?
HMW make his experience good while interacting the college?
HMW make the contact available for him without visiting the college?

Challenge - Make all the essential information available.
POV – – Yash needed detailed information about the courses offered and the academic structure for the same in that college because he wanted to take admission for that course in that college itself.
HMW – HMW make the information available for him, about the courses offered?
HMW guide him about a specific course?
HMW make the academic structure available for others like him?

Clustering of Multiple solutions by Brainstorming

Based on the HMW questions.

Graph

Based on Importance and feasible solution from those HMW questions clusters.

Broad Themes Identified

Based on the Graph

Payment of Fees
Navigation inside the campus
Information related
Documents
Form Filling
Courses offered Information
Hostel related

Story Boarding

Based on the broad themes identified had to select one topic by each individual.

Navigation inside the campus

Yash has just passed his 12th boards and looking for a university in Pune. Yash lives in Mumbai and was looking for a design course. As he is not a localite he is visiting Pune for the first time. And he doesn’t know anything about the location of the college and about the college campus too. He wanted to visit the design dept. inside the campus, as he was late for the admissions he directly wanted to head to the dept. without wasting his time by searching for it or by asking someone where exactly the department is. But when he reached the location he was shocked, as the college was too big i.e. the campus was too huge and there was no indication of the department he was searching for. There were around 12 – 14 huge buildings and there was no naming or signboards to the way he was finding for. So end up asking to some of the students but the students or the people were also not knowing about the design dept. and then he was just searching for the dept. where the road head to and wasted his 1 to 2 hours in searching for the same.
And then after that he decided to go back to his place but then he randomly asked one girl approaching to his side, about the design department. Then he just explained her what all things he had done for searching the dept. Then she told him that not to worry, there is an app provided by the college which can help you to navigate inside the campus wherever you want. And then she guided him with the app. At the end Yash was finally able to search for the department he wanted to visit within no time.

Feedback for Story Boarding

This helped in coming up with whether the solution and the storyboard is explainable to the user easily or not.

Pranali

The storyboard helped me understand the complete flow.
The storyboarding flow is shown perfectly for any user to understand the complete process.
Characters can be recognized properly as defined in the board.
The text shown along with the images perfectly describe in short what the image wants to depict.
I understood the problem statement and where the app was introduced and the solution to it was found accordingly.
Understood the complete flow without any questions.
The sketches and the text match perfectly as depicted.

Design Project 1

University Admissions Documentation