Admit AI
Mobile & Web | UX + Product Design | Nile Studio
Product Overview
A dual-platform system: a mobile app empowering students to track goals and receive AI coaching, and a web dashboard enabling administrators to monitor student progress and streamline support.
ROLE:
Product Design Intern
TEAM:
3 Developers, 1 Product Manager
Challenge
College prep is a maze. Students face scattered tools, missed deadlines, and anxiety. Counselors struggle with volume, manual tracking, and limited insights into student progress.
Target Audience
Students (high school + college) - need support managing deadlines, goals, and application steps.
Administrators - need tools to monitor, support, and guide students more effectively.
Solution
I designed a two-part platform. Student App: Helps students track goals, receive AI coaching, and stay organized. Admin Dashboard: Gives administrators a real-time view of student data, task progress, and program outcomes.
Personal Challenge
Unlike past projects, this startup setting came with limited resources and fast timelines. I had to build the design system and research process from scratch, making every step intentional and lightweight.
Research
Research Goals
What emotional and structural barriers keep students from staying on track?
Why is the current counseling approach not working?
These questions helped me look beyond just surface-level issues and dig into the deeper “why” behind user frustrations.
Key Insights
70% of students wanted clear progress visuals + timely reminders.
60% felt AI could help, but only if it felt personalized.
90% of admins wanted batch tools and calendar sync.
65% needed support for bulk uploads.
Key Insights
Throughout our research, we identified three core needs:
Students
Need clarity: structured goals, visual progress, and timely reminders.
How do counselors and nonprofit staff currently manage student progress?
Where do the biggest gaps exist for students and administrators?
AI Support
Both students and admins would like to incorporate AI into theirprocess.
Admins
Need centralized dashboards, batch tools, and clear data to track progress at scale.
Personas
I synthesized research into two key personas to represent our primary users and anchor design decisions.
Andrew
A school administrator overseeing 150+ students, needing fast insights and actionable data.
Alexis
A high school junior overwhelmed by deadlines and unsure where to start.
Methodology
Surveyed 50+ students and interviewed 20 admins, focusing on low-income and first-gen communities.
Tested early concepts and prototypes with both groups.
Ideate and Sketches
I sketched multiple quick versions for both student and admin flows to test layout, content clarity, and logic under time constraints.
Wireframing
To bring core ideas to life quickly, I created a mix of lo-fi and hi-fi wireframes for both the student mobile app and admin dashboard. Each user flow, such as goal tracking, was iterated rapidly based on early feedback during scrums or/and usability tests.
These wireframes were created and tested weekly under tight deadlines. Feedback loops with the team and real users helped guide refinements. I focused not just on “what to fix” but on why, asking questions like:
Is the flow intuitive?
Are we supporting student independence?
Can admins take action at a glance?
Refinement
During weekly design reviews and usability tests, I focused on understanding the “why” behind user feedback before making changes. These refinements were guided by direct input and my commitment to designing with clarity and purpose.
Goal Tracking - Student App
✅ Navigation: ✅ 85% of users found navigation intuitive
❌ Organization: 50% of users found that it was difficult to track goals over time
To address this, I reorganized the layout using accordion filters and clearer goal categories. This simplified scanning and allowed AI to surface the most urgent or overdue goals.
Added “Threads” to help address AI functionality
Added “Program Goal” interactively
After
Before
Based on this, I introduced features like bulk file uploads, goal preview cards, and an AI-powered assistant to help admins surface at-risk students and automate nudges.
Admin Dashboard
✅ 90% of admins found the dashboard easy to navigate
🔧 65% wanted better calendar integration and bulk uploads
🔧 68% asked for detailed student views and flexible task management
🔧 55% requested more personalized AI suggestions
Branding & Typography
The branding for this project was designed to balance warmth and professionalism, inspired by the friendly tone of Duolingo and the structured clarity of Slack.
Color Palette
Green → Growth and progress for students inspired by Doulingo
Blue → Trust and clarity for data-backed admin views like LinkedIn
Typography
We used Azeret for its clean, rounded forms, striking a balance between warmth and professionalism. Bold weights helped emphasize key interactions like “Add Goal” or “Next.”
Components
Rounded buttons for clarity and comfort
Unified structure across mobile and web
Modular admin layout with data-forward components and easy bulk actions
Solution
Student Mobile App
Goal Tracking
Clear progress indicators, collapsible goals by priority, and contextual AI nudges
🎯 Addresses the need for a structured and personalized approach to goal-setting.
Coach Admit (AI Assistant)
Personalized guidance to help students stay on track without needing admin support
Explore Feature
Curated resources (scholarships, tips, events) tailored to students’ interests
Dashboard Overview
High-level overview of all students with filters by risk level, progress, and recent activity
Administrator Dashboard
Thread Posting
Enables open, interactive communication between administrators and students, ensuring updates, resources, and guidance are shared in an accessible and engaging format.
Student Profile Management
Quick insights on progress, recent activity, and alerts
Calendar Integration
Admins can schedule and manage events, deadlines, and meetings in one place.
This simplifies planning and ensures students stay on track without missing important dates.
Outcome & Reflection
This project taught me how to lead design thinking in an early-stage environment—from zero system to scalable experience.
Startup agility: Built a design system from scratch with speed and quality.
Collaboration: Worked closely with devs, ensuring technical feasibility
User feedback: Used iterative testing to refine navigation and AI features.
Communication: Clear storytelling helped align cross-functional teams.
What Learned
Admit gave me the opportunity to apply my full process—from user research and synthesis to system-building and final prototyping—while always keeping simplicity and empathy at the center.
Reflection
This project tested my ability to build from zero: establishing structure, balancing constraints, and growing confidence in driving design decisions. It reaffirmed the impact of thoughtful design on both community and individual success.
*All designs in this project were created via Figma
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