Financial Aid Journey Mapping (EduTech domain)

🧭 Overview

This ongoing study focuses on understanding the current Financial Aid experience for university students.
The goal is to map the end-to-end journey, identify pain points, and uncover opportunities for improvement in communication, usability, and transparency.

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🎯 Objective

To evaluate and redesign the Financial Aid journey by identifying key friction points in the process — from application to disbursement and refund management — and propose design opportunities to improve student confidence, clarity, and self-service efficiency.

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👤 My Role

Role: UX Designer
Scope: Journey mapping, user research synthesis, and opportunity identification.
Phase: Discovery (Work in Progress)
Tools: FigJam, Figma

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🔍 Current Focus

• Understand the end-to-end student journey from Financial Aid application to refund receipt.
• Identify breakdowns in communication, unclear steps, and timing confusion.
• Assess mobile and accessibility readiness across student portals.
• Discover opportunities for automation, trust-building, and simplified task completion.

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🧩 Key Observations

• Students experience confusion and anxiety due to unclear timelines and scattered information.
• Multiple portals and logins cause fragmentation and redundant navigation steps.
• Lack of real-time updates reduces trust and transparency.
• Accessibility issues (small fonts, non-mobile responsive layouts) affect usability.
• Inconsistent messaging around SAP appeals, book advances, and refund timing.

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💡 Emerging Opportunities

• Simplify steps through clear sequencing and visual task indicators.
• Improve communication by adding alerts and notifications for key milestones.
• Redesign disbursement overview with clearer breakdowns of awards and timelines.
• Introduce educational micro-content to guide students through complex financial aid concepts.
• Enable mobile-first navigation and accessibility controls (font size, screen readers).

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Currently in the Discovery and Mapping phase, focusing on:

• Synthesizing user interviews and feedback.
• Developing an “As-Is” Journey Map to visualize student pain points and emotional triggers.
• Identifying opportunity clusters for the “To-Be” experience roadmap.

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🚀 Next Steps

• Conduct stakeholder validation workshops to prioritize findings.
• Create the “To-Be” Journey Map illustrating improved communication flow and student empowerment.
• Develop early wireframes and experience prototypes to test proposed improvements.

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📈 Expected Outcomes

• Improved clarity and trust in financial aid communication.
• Reduced student confusion and support tickets.
• Enhanced mobile experience and accessibility compliance.
• Increased self-service success rates for students managing aid independently.

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