Brand Identity, Development

Applifit

Led the design of a comprehensive brand identity and user interface for a college application platform, focusing on creating an intuitive and streamlined user experience to simplify the application process for students.

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Role

Designer, Researcher

Client

Applifit

Areas

Design, UI/UX

Case Study

Simplifying the College Application Process

College applications are something that most adults have had to go through at some point in their lives, and for decades the process has been clunky and antiquated. Applifit seeks to streamline this process, visually, emotionally, and logisitically, by allowing students to not only browse all schools by simple, highlighted features, but to also apply to all of them in one central hub.

Using soft yet collegiate colors, rounded serif fonts, and a clean user interface, I worked to create a user experience that not only felt age and use-case appropriate, but is also inviting, and intuitive to use.

Platforms Used

• Figma
• Photoshop
• Illustrator
• Maze

Defining the Problem

Problem:

Students applying to colleges want a centralized place to apply to every major university, but then have trouble choosing which schools to actually apply to because the list is long and overwhelming.

Solution:

Building a platform where prospective applicants can not only see stand out facts about each individual school, but all the schools can be easily categorized into helpful pre-existing groups. If they wish to dive deeper into finding schools recommended for them based on their interests, they can take a quiz that will better match them with schools that fit different interests or directions they might want to explore.

Research Methods Used

• Online communities - Reddit, Facebook groups, Quora
• In person interviews - students, college professors
• Maze user testing with a sample group of 50 users

Concise Main User Flow

After testing a few different user flows, we distilled the main experience down to a simple flow that would allow the user to explore the app, save schools to a list, and take the match quiz without distracting with too many other options.

Some of the changes that were made right off the bat included allowing the user to use the app without first making an account to reduce user dropoff at the very beginning, as well as reducing competing options from the secondary user flows.

Wireframe to Prototype

Designed lofi wireframes for the app in Figma that were UX tested using Maze and a sample study of users that were asked to complete tasks including exploring schools, saving them to a list, and applying to colleges from that list.

As seen in this comparison of the homepage as well as the one of the school-specific pages, design changes were made to the design heirarchy to draw users into the main CTA header section, with browsing interest categories as the second option, and the quiz as a tertiary option. On the school-specific page, we saw user dropoff when not including more information above the fold where they can see more info immediately without scrolling down, so the main photo was reduced in size, and new sections were added and rearranged to include a description, alumni reviews, stats at a glance, etc.

Brand Identity

The logomark captures the student’s journey of discovering schools that align with their passions while reimagining the traditional paper application for a digital era. Inspired by a Venn diagram, it visually represents the intersection where a student’s portfolio meets a school’s, symbolizing the perfect match in a seamless, modern experience.

The font choice for the Applifit logo balances playfulness with credibility, making it appealing to students navigating the college application process. The rounded, slightly italicized lettering conveys approachability and energy, while the bold weight ensures a sense of trust and legitimacy. The modern, geometric icon adds a subtle tech-forward touch, reinforcing the app’s role as an innovative and streamlined solution.