Mobile App Design
Navigate Your Exchange Program
UniLink is a platform to help exchange students adapt to a new country and university. With firsthand insights from experienced peers, UniLink ensures a smoother, more enriching transition by providing reliable guidance on academics, culture, and daily life.
| Team
Brian Camilo
Daphne Cheng
Ruhin Gharai
| My Role
User Research,
Interaction Design
| Timeline
Feb - Mar 2025
| Tools
Figma, FigJam
Overview
Navigating a new country is overwhelming
As an exchange student, adjusting to a new academic system, culture, and daily life can be daunting. Many struggle with a lack of guidance, making it difficult to adapt and make the most of their experience.
SOLUTION & MVP
Empowering Exchange Students Through Connection
Our app is designed to help exchange students transition into their new environment by connecting them with experienced peers.
Find Your Guide
Browse mentor profiles, read reviews, and connect with experienced students who can guide your journey.
Ask, Share, Learn
A dynamic Q&A space where students can seek answers, share experiences, and gain insights into academics, culture, and everyday life.
Plan, Book, Connect
Easily schedule mentorship sessions with just a few taps. Get the right advice at the right time.
Join & Belong
Discover and participate in student-led events, mentorship sessions, and networking opportunities that make your exchange experience richer.
Define
What do exchange students need to thrive?
Survey
Before designing UniLink, we surveyed to understand exchange students' key concerns and needs. I synthesized major challenges students face when adapting to a new environment and the role mentorship can play in easing their transition.
Competitive Analysis
To gain insights into existing solutions, I analyzed both direct and indirect competitors, focusing on treatment, motivation, and progress tracking.
Research Synthesis
After conducting user research and analyzing data, I categorized key insights using affinity mapping to uncover seven critical pain points impacting exchange students. These pain points shaped the core direction of UniLink’s design.
Minimum Viable Product
Based on our research findings, we designed our mvp to address the most pressing challenges that exchange students face.
Empathize
Identifying user needs and challenges
User Persona
Based on our research findings, I created a persona of an exchange students who face challenges adapting to a new academic and cultural environment as our primary user group.
HOW MIGHT WE MAKE IT LESS OVERWHELMING TO NAVIGATE ACADEMICS, CULTURE, AND DAILY LIFE?
Ideate
Designing solutions to simplify the exchange experience
Information Architecture
I created an information architecture to visualize the entire flow of our app.
Prototype
Transforming ideas into tangible user experiences
Design System
After defining our MVPs, my team created a design system that includes typography, colors, and text styles.
Usability Testing
We conducted a usability test with five target users to evaluate the prototype's user-friendliness and overall experience.
❌ Users found the filtering system inconvenient and suggested sorting questions by category instead.
❌ Users had difficulty finding the booking icon and preferred it to be placed in the navigation bar.
❌ Users wanted the ability to save events to apply later when their schedule became clearer.
✅ Users found the process of booking mentorship sessions seamless and easy to navigate.
✅ The idea of student and mentor-hosted events and networking opportunities was well-received.
✅ Users appreciated how simple it was to find and connect with mentors, making the platform feel intuitive.
Positive Feedbacks
Pain Points
Implementing Feedback
High Fidelity
Reflection
Enhancing the User Experience
Outcome
All old and new users we tested with, along with the audience from our pitch presentation found the app insightful and expressed excitement about using it. They enjoyed the flow, appreciated the clarity of features, and felt the platform would genuinely help exchange students adapt to a new environment.
What I learned
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Our initial idea focused on student rentals, but research revealed a broader demographic. Narrowing down to exchange students led us to pivot toward a mentorship platform that directly addressed their needs.
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Deep research helped us recognize the complexity of our original idea. Understanding the feasibility of different solutions allowed us to refocus on a more impactful and achievable platform.
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Repeated testing exposed gaps in our design. Some flows made sense to us as designers but confused users. Testing helped us refine the experience and ensure clarity.
Future Iteration
Since our primary users are exchange students, we now want to deepen our understanding of mentors' experiences. What would incentivize them to participate? What challenges do they face? I believe that by balancing mentorship growth and student support, we can enhance engagement for both sides.